


uncontrollably fond

by cosmogony



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 5+1 Things, Canon Compliant, Cat Puns, Cats, Childhood Friends, Confessions, Falling In Love, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, Time Skips, Volleyball Dorks in Love, seriously theres so much fluff in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:53:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28285809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmogony/pseuds/cosmogony
Summary: “You really like cats, huh?”This time, Kenma’s eyes lit up, and he began to ecstatically nod. Tetsurou was proud of himself for realising this, though surely it was obvious. He wondered what else he could learn about Kenma by simply observing. If he wasn’t much of a talker, that was fine with Tetsurou (he couldn’t judge, really, he wasn’t much different), he’d just have to look harder to learn things about his new friend.“Cats are the best animal,” Kenma said with such certainty that Tetsurou wouldn’t even dream of suggesting other cool animals. If Kenma said as much was a fact, then cats must be the best animal.// Or, the 5 times that cats made an appearance in Kuroo and Kenma's lives, and the 1 time that the cat was theirs
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou
Comments: 30
Kudos: 266





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Carrochan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carrochan/gifts).



> hello hello! it's been forever since i posted something, but i've been working on this for a long time, and i'm super excited to share it!
> 
> this is a commission for the wonderful [Carro](https://twitter.com/carrochan) , thank you for being so patient with me as i took literally forever to get this done, i hope you like it as much as i do <3 
> 
> and a huge huge than you to [Neens](https://twitter.com/neenswrites) and [Mars](https://twitter.com/nearly_theyre) for beta reading this, it would not be nearly as sweet without them, as well as a thank you to [Evi](https://twitter.com/daichislover) for always cheering me on with this one!

**1.**

Kuroo Tetsurou’s father had told him to at least _try_ and make friends this year. Moving to Tokyo had been the biggest change of Tetsurou’s (short, eight year) life, and it was safe to say that the move had terrified him down to his very core. What if he didn’t like the school? What if he couldn’t manage to make any friends? Or even worse, what if his father’s job didn’t work out, and they had to move all over again? 

He’d tried to explain these worries to his dad, and he’d been supportive _enough._ He’d reassured Tetsurou that he was a very likeable young man, and that of course, he’d make friends. Along with this, he promised that they wouldn’t move any time in the foreseeable future. Apparently, he had great job stability, but Tetsurou hadn’t really understood what he’d been talking about, so he just smiled and nodded, like his grandmother had taught him to.

Tetsurou’s father had also always been the perceptive type, though. He must have noticed that Tetsurou wasn’t quite convinced that everything would turn out fine, and the upcoming school semester was causing him a great deal of anxiety. 

So he found Tetsurou someone to make a friend out of, so hopefully, he wouldn’t have to go into it alone. 

Last night, he’d told Tetsurou that their neighbours were called the Kozumes. Apparently, he’d met them while mowing their new lawn this morning, and they’d gotten on much like a house on fire. It turned out that they had a son around the same age as Tetsurou, and his parents thought that it’d be a good idea if they had become friends. While Tetsurou was grateful, he was also, quite understandably, terrified. 

But he supposed he’d give it a try. After all, what did he have to lose aside from a nonexistent reputation?

That was how Tetsurou found himself standing in the middle of the Kozume’s kitchen, clutching onto his dad’s sweater. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Mrs. Kozume greeted. Tetsurou looked up at her from behind his father. She had a warm smile, and bright eyes that were staring right into his, and Tetsurou decided that she seemed nice enough that he could drop his shoulders a little. 

“It’s nice to see you again,” Kuroo’s father smiled at Mrs Kozume, before gently trying to nudge Tetsurou forward. “This is Tetsurou, he’s a bit shy.” 

Tetsurou’s ears burned at his father’s words, and he raised one hand to offer her a small wave. 

Mrs Kozume only smiled at him. “It’s nice to meet you, Tetsurou. Don’t worry about being shy, my Kenma is the same way.” She turned around then, scanning the hallway before softly calling, “Kenma, can you come downstairs?”

“Seems like you and Kenma already have something in common, hey?” his father joked, lightly patting Tetsurou’s shoulder. He looked back up at his father with an expression that could only convey ‘Are you serious right now?’ 

Before anyone could say anything further, a boy descended the staircase of the Kozume household and instantly dashed towards his mother, standing behind her to use as a shield. He looked shorter than Tetsurou, perhaps a little younger, too. He had dark, straight hair that fell to his chin. It contrasted starkly against his alabaster skin and bright, golden eyes that were boring right back at Tetsurou. 

Tetsurou’s hand balled tighter in his father’s sweater. Just as he was analysing this boy, he could tell that he was being analysed too. He could feel his heart rate increasing, the beat thumping hard against his little chest. Suddenly, the room felt at least ten degrees warmer, Tetsurou almost regretted wearing a hoodie instead of a t-shirt. 

And then, just to increase Tetsurou’s seemingly inescapable anxiety, his father stepped to the side, leaving Tetsurou stranded in the open, facing the full severity of this boy’s sharp gaze. 

“Come on, introduce yourself,” his father said. Tetsurou was certain he meant it kindly, but to Tetsurou, it felt as though he were being thrown to a pack of wolves. 

Tetsurou blinked once, then twice, trying to snap himself out of his own stupor. “Um, my name is Kuroo Tetsurou. I just moved in next door.” He dropped his head in a small bow. Staring at the floor for a split second was almost a relief. 

When he turned his head back up, he found the other boy still staring at him, his eyes ever so slightly narrowed and head tilted to the side. He was thinking of _something,_ clearly. But of what, Tetsurou had no idea. 

And that terrified him. 

He sent a silent prayer up above that his heartbeat wasn’t loud enough for any other person in the room to hear, lest the other boy. _Kenma,_ he reminded himself. Tetsurou idly wondered if he was anywhere near as anxious as he was right now. Based on the wide-eyed and mouth agape expression he wore, it seemed like he could have been. 

“And this is…” Mrs Kozume smiled, pushing her own son forward. 

He sighed a moment before speaking, eyes shifting from Tetsurou onto the ground, almost like he wished it would swallow him up. Tetsurou could relate to that. 

“Kenma.” 

“And?” His mother questioned. It was as clear as day that they’d rehearsed this, and that put Tetsurou’s heart slightly at ease. If he wasn’t the only one who was nervous, maybe it was okay. 

“And I’m excited to be friends,” Kenma mumbled, in a monotone that emphasised that he was _anything but excited_ to be friends. 

Tetsurou found his own lips quirking up. Maybe Kenma was funnier than he had anticipated. 

Kenma’s mother clapped her hands together, a delighted smile crossing her face. “Why don’t you show Tetsurou around the house, Kenma?” 

* * *

Tetsurou and Kenma found themselves standing in Kenma’s room, a few feet apart, and completely unmoving. 

Kenma’s idea of a tour of the house had been walking down corridors and pointing at closed doors and saying the name of the room until they’d reached Kenma’s room, and they’d shuffled in. 

And now they were here. In complete silence. Kenma was still staring down at the floor, and Tetsurou was fiddling with the strings of his hoodie. 

Seconds turned to minutes, and Tetsurou _really_ didn’t want that to turn into hours, so he pushed himself to speak, ignoring the pounding of his heart and the sweat gathering on his palms. “So… how old are you?” 

“Seven.” 

Tetsurou waited for Kenma to say more, but it seemed like that clipped response was all Tetsurou was going to get. 

A grimace found its way across Tetsurou’s face. He was _eight,_ and therefore a year older than Kenma. Which meant they probably weren’t going to be in the same grade at school. And then this whole awkward and most frightening interaction of Tetsurou’s _entire life_ would be for nothing. 

They lapsed back into silence after that. Tetsurou could briefly hear his father talking to Kenma’s mother downstairs, and he was oh so tempted to run back to him, and ask him to get him out of there right now. His shoulders sagged. He couldn’t do that; he’d promised his father he’d try and make friends this year. He couldn’t turn away from the first one. 

He let his eyes trace around Kenma’s room instead. His walls were white, adorned with a few posters here and there of robots or aliens that Tetsurou didn’t recognise. A single bed sat in the corner of the room, with a blue coverlet on it, and a pillow shaped like a cat’s head on top. His eyes continued to scan the room, lingering on a desk beside the bed with a couple of loose pieces of paper strewn across it, along with a small bucket of pens. Finally, in the corner adjacent to the bed, was a gaming set-up: a small TV with a gaming console hooked up to it, as well as a couple of controllers. 

As though Kenma could sense him looking at the console, he spoke up. “Do you like video games?” 

Tetsurou turned back to look at him, Kenma’s eyes were still glued to the wooden floorboards, his brows scrunched together. 

“I’ve never really played…” Tetsurou admitted, biting his bottom lip. It’d never been an interest of his - he preferred to play real sports instead of virtual ones. 

He hoped that admission wouldn’t completely crush any chances of friendship with Kenma. He seemed to like them, based on the system and posters, and the last thing Tetsurou wanted was for that to create an even larger rift between them. 

But instead, Kenma perked up instead, eyes meeting Tetsurou’s again for the first time since they’d met downstairs. He leaned forward, eyes opened wide in disbelief. “You’ve never played a video game?”

Tetsurou shook his head.

“Do you want to try?” Kenma almost looked hopeful. “Racing games are more fun with two people.” 

This time, Tetsurou nodded. 

Maybe he could make a friend out of Kozume Kenma after all. 

* * *

Steadily and surely, playing video games in Kenma’s bedroom became a habit of the two boys. 

A couple of weeks had passed and the new school semester was looming over them, but Tetsurou thought that if he could walk there with Kenma in the morning, it wouldn’t be so scary. 

Sure, Tetsurou didn’t know Kenma very well yet (he liked to say ‘yet’, there was hope inside him that he’d get to know him more in the near future). He could count the things he knew about Kenma on his fingers. He was shy, really good at video games, liked cats, and almost exclusively wore hoodies. Even though they had begun to talk more than when they’d first met, their conversations still hadn’t revealed much about the other boy. 

But that didn’t mean that he wasn’t familiar. To Tetsurou, Kenma’s sure presence next door was a comfort. He knew that if he was ever bored, or alone at home, he could go next door and play games with Kenma. 

That was where Tetsurou found himself almost every afternoon. Kenma’s bedroom had almost become a second home, and his parents always welcomed him. It seemed they were as happy that their son had made a friend as Tetsurou’s father was. 

And just like Kenma had become familiar, so did the games he liked to play. Though, Tetsurou wasn’t getting any better at them. Wasn’t getting any better at _any_ of them. Whether it was fighting games, racing games or adventure games, Kenma always had him beat. It was almost inhuman. 

This was especially the case when it came to _Crazy Racers._ Tetsurou hadn’t even come close to overtaking Kenma’s character on any map, and if he didn’t know better, he’d say Kenma had rigged the game. 

“How are you so good at this game?” Tetsurou asked, setting his controller down beside him on Kenma’s bed. “Seriously, I don’t think I’ve beat you once.” 

Kenma only shrugged from beside him, blinking up at Tetsurou through dark lashes. “Practice, I guess.” 

“Do you think your character is lucky?” Tetsurou asked, gesturing to Kenma’s screen. While Tetsurou varied his racers, Kenma always played as the same one. A man wearing a giant, golden cat costume. “He’s a Maneki-Neko, right? They’re lucky.” 

Kenma shrugged again, though this time the inkling of a smile crossed his face. “Maybe.” 

“You really like cats, huh?” 

This time, Kenma’s eyes lit up, and he began to ecstatically nod. Tetsurou was proud of himself for realising this, though surely it was obvious. He wondered what else he could learn about Kenma by simply observing. If he wasn’t much of a talker, that was fine with Tetsurou (he couldn’t judge, really, he wasn’t much different), he’d just have to look harder to learn things about his new friend. 

“Cats are the best animal,” Kenma said with such certainty that Tetsurou wouldn’t even _dream_ of suggesting other cool animals. If Kenma said as much was a fact, then cats must be the best animal. 

Kenma was one of the smartest people Tetsurou thought he’d ever met, after all. He’d be a fool not to listen to his wisdom. 

“Would you ever get a cat?” Tetsurou asked, pressing for more information. It was rare to get Kenma talking so animatedly, he wanted to take full advantage of the situation. 

At once, Kenma’s shoulders fell and his head drooped, causing his dark hair to fall into his face. “I really want to, but my mom’s allergic. That’s why I just pet all of the neighbourhood cats.” 

Tetsurou pouted. “If we’re still friends when we’re big and have our own places, I’ll get you a cat.” 

Kenma’s face cracked into a smile. “I’m going to remind you of that. If we’re still friends, that is.” 

At eight years old, Kuroo Tetsurou couldn’t explain why, but something in his gut told him that he’d be friends with Kozume Kenma for a long time. 


	2. Chapter 2

**2**

“Come on, you’re not even a little bit excited for tomorrow?” Tetsurou asked. He was currently situated on Kenma’s bedroom floor, staring up at his best friend. He had a remote controller in hand, though he hadn’t been paying much attention to the game on the stream, perfectly content to button mash in the guise of playing to try and get Kenma to  _ talk.  _

“No. Pay attention to the game,” Kenma reprimanded from his bed. His dark hair was obscuring his face, Tetsurou couldn’t see his expression. He could guess, however, that he looked unimpressed. 

Tetsurou shook his head in disdain. They’d been playing the same fighting game for the better part of an hour, and Tetsurou had been trying to discuss tomorrow for just as long. It wasn’t every day that someone started High School, and Tetsurou knew Kenma - knew Kenma was going to be anxious about it - so he thought it’d help his best friend to touch base. 

Evidently, he’d been wrong. It appeared Kenma wanted to focus on literally anything else. 

But Tetsurou wasn’t one to give up when the going got tough, and he knew it’d help Kenma to talk over what he was worried about. So he was going to push. Just enough that Kenma wouldn’t get uncomfortable, of course. 

Plus, after all, he was excited to have his best friend back at school with him. He’d missed having him around last year, the walks too and from school had felt far lonelier. It’d be nice to get back in the comfortable rhythm of meeting Kenma at his gate every day. 

“Maybe you’ll make friends.” 

Kenma considered this for a moment before replying. “You’re all I really need.”

Tetsurou had to physically stop himself clutching at his heart and melting on the spot. Kenma  _ really  _ wasn’t helping Tetsurou get over the tiny crush he had on him. Affection from Kenma was so rare, Tetsurou knew that there probably wouldn’t be a day in the future where it stopped having an effect on him. He could only hope that Kenma was too engrossed in the video game to miss the blush that he was sure had covered his cheeks. 

“New friends?” Tetsurou asked, praying to whatever higher force was out there that his voice would stay steady. 

“Don’t want them.” 

“What about friends in the volleyball club, then?” Tetsurou pressed. He hadn’t been quiet about the fact that he was ecstatic for Kenma to join Nekoma’s volleyball team. Their current setter was fine and all, but he wasn’t Kenma. He couldn’t analyse the courts like Kenma had always been able to. Tetsurou was certain that Kenma’s natural talent could absolutely blossom on a team like Nekoma’s. 

But Kenma, it seemed, had other ideas. “Who said I was joining the volleyball team?”

“You’re not going to join?” Tetsurou tried to hide the disappointment in his voice. Ultimately, if Kenma didn’t want to, he wasn’t going to try and force him (and Kenma wasn’t the type to listen to anyone, anyway). But that didn’t mean Tetsurou’s heart didn’t hurt a little bit. He missed playing with Kenma more than words could convey, passing the ball over a net at their park just wasn’t the same as a match. 

Kenma turned to look at him this time, and shrugged. “I don’t know if I want to.” 

“You don’t like anything other than video games, cats and apple pie, huh?” Tetsurou teased. 

Kenma’s eyes narrowed at him, and Tetsurou could see him thinking about his response. “I like other things too.” 

“Like?” 

“Not important.”

Tetsurou rolled his eyes. Kenma was stubborn to a fault, sometimes. Arguing with him was a lost cause. Instead, Tetsurou pushed himself onto his elbows to get up off of the floor, grabbed a marker off of Kenma’s desk, and made his way over to his duffle bag in the corner. 

“What are you doing?” Kenma asked. Tetsurou couldn’t see him, but he could feel Kenma’s eyes on the back of his head. Kenma had been analysing him for as long as Tetsurou could remember, now was not going to be the exception. 

“Just give me a minute, I’ll show you.” Tetsurou rummaged through his bag, pulling out the spare volleyball he knew he kept in there. He uncapped his marker to draw a quick doodle on the ball. 

Once he was done, he recapped the pen and put it back onto Kenma’s desk, before holding the ball out to Kenma to see. 

“You drew… a cat,” Kenma commented, face unimpressed. Sure, the small cat face wasn’t exactly an artistic masterpiece, but he at least hoped that Kenma would crack a smile. 

Tetsurou nodded, forcing his face into a serious expression. “I was hoping that by combining your love of cats with volleyball, it’d condition you to associate them together, and hence influence your decision to sign up for the club tomorrow.” 

Kenma shook his head, the corners of his lips curling up. Mission achieved. “You’re ridiculous. Have I ever told you that?” 

“Multiple times,” Tetsurou confirmed, pulling the ball back to admire his artwork. Even if it didn’t work, he knew he’d get a kick out of it whenever he saw it. “But did it work?”

“I’ll think about it,” Kenma mused, eyes lingering on the floor. Before Tetsurou could comment again, Kenma’s head snapped up, his eyes meeting Tetsurou’s again. “Can we play another round?”

Tetsurou beamed at him, tossing the ball back into the bag, and reassuming his spot on the floor. “Of course we can.” 

After all, thinking about it was all Tetsurou could ask for. 

* * *

“Don’t you look  _ fur- _ bulous in your Nekoma uniform?” Tetsurou asked, leaning against the front gate of Kenma’s house. The brisk morning air was refreshing, and Tetsurou had found that he’d missed early morning wake-up calls over summer — there was something serene about walking to school as the sun rose that couldn’t be replicated by any other experience. 

And he knew walking through it with Kenma again was only bound to make it better. 

“Don’t you think you’re taking the cat thing a little too far now? Going to a high school called Nekoma is one thing, but don’t you dare start making puns.” Kenma had one hand on his hip, the other clutching his PSP as he made his way down the steps of his house and towards Tetsurou. 

“What do you mean? My puns are paw-some.”

“I will turn around and go right back into my house if you don’t knock it off,” Kenma threatened. 

Tetsurou only took this as a challenge. 

“This is the way everyone at Nekoma has to speak. Part of the school policy. Isn’t that a-meow-sing?” They’d begun to walk now, easily falling into step beside each other. It was as though there hadn’t been a year gap that had disrupted their routine. Being with Kenma just came so easily, Tetsurou was grateful to have this back again.

Kenma shot him a glare. “I’ll drop out and go to Fukurodani, they’re only a couple of stops away anyway.” 

Tetsurou clutched his chest in mock horror. “You wouldn’t ab-nyan-don me, would you?” 

“That one was terrible, Kuro,” Kenma deadpanned. The familiar sound of beeps and digitised music filled the space between them, Kenma staring down at his PSP. 

With a soft shake of his head, Tetsurou grabbed one of Kenma’s shoulders with his hand, ready to steer him when they came to a road or pole. He wasn’t sure how Kenma hadn’t crashed into anything in his absence last year. 

They walked in a comfortable silence for a short while, only occasionally interrupted by Tetsurou peering over Kenma’s shoulder to ask for an explanation of his video game, which Kenma was always happy to give. Which was a good thing, because Tetsurou didn’t think he’d ever get tired of listening to it. 

As they reached the front gate of Nekoma High School, Kenma seemed to slow down, unwilling to take the step to cross the threshold into the school. 

“You alright?” Tetsurou asked, trying to keep his tone devoid of the worry swirling in his gut. He knew Kenma was going to be anxious about this, it didn’t come as a surprise. He’d always been a creature of habit, and disrupting that rarely went well for anyone. 

Kenma shifted his weight between his legs, eyes not lifting from the screen in front of him. “I think I want to go home.” His voice was soft - so soft that if Tetsurou hadn’t been actively listening for it, he would have missed it completely. 

A gentle autumn breeze began to blow, causing more of Kenma’s dark hair to fall into his face. Kenma didn’t push it back away. Tetsurou had always hated not being able to see Kenma’s face - it was the easiest way to tell his emotions, after all. But pushing it back may have been overstepping his boundaries (did he and Kenma even have boundaries? He wasn’t sure, anymore), so instead he opted to stand in front of Kenma, a wall between him and Nekoma. 

“Kenma?” Tetsurou tried to keep his voice quiet. He’d seen Kenma get like this in the past - though less frequent the older he got. Loud voices only served to push him further away and into himself. 

Kenma didn’t meet Tetsurou’s concerned gaze. “I said I want to go home.” 

“Why?” Tetsurou knew exactly why, and at any other time it would have been pointless to ask. He knew Kenma like he knew the back of his own hand. But that was why he asked. Just because Tetsurou knew how Kenma was feeling right now didn’t mean that Kenma had sorted through the feelings for himself. He had to get him to overcome them himself, realise how illogical they were himself. 

Kenma shrugged, his fingers slowing over the buttons of his PSP. “Maybe I can try to come again tomorrow.” 

“What’s the worst that could go wrong if you went in today?” 

“I could panic. Make everyone think I’m weird. I don’t want to be noticed like that, especially not on the first day.” Kenma’s voice sped up the longer he spoke for, and Tetsurou was almost worried he was going to have a panic attack then and there. 

“Or,” Tetsurou started, aware he was entering dangerous territory. One misplaced word on his part and Kenma would absolutely shut down, and probably turn around and walk away without another word. “Or, maybe it’ll be a really good day. You won’t know unless you try it.” 

Kenma didn’t respond, or make any sign that he was listening, so Tetsurou thought perhaps it was better if he just kept speaking, something for Kenma to keep his mind on that’d hopefully drown out his own thoughts. “You know, I was pretty freaked out this time last year, too. And it sucked having to go into it without my best friend, and I thought it was going to be the worst day of my life. But it turned out to not be too bad. And I know this year is gonna be even better, because you’re going to be right there with me. And I’m going to be right beside you too, Kenma. You’re not doing this alone.” 

Tetsurou could have said more. He could have talked about how Kenma was one of the smartest people he’d ever met, and how he knew he’d do amazing in high school. Or he could have talked about what an incredible and understanding friend he was, and that anyone would be lucky to have him. He could have even offered to introduce Kenma to his other friends, so he’d have other people around guaranteed. 

But he knew none of that mattered to Kenma. 

The only thing that mattered to Kenma was some sense of familiarity in a foreign place, and Tetsurou knew that he was the closest thing that could provide that. So all he offered was a familiar shoulder to lean on, and hopefully, it would be enough. 

Kenma’s gaze slowly lifted, and his eyes met Tetsurou’s. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to baby me.” 

Tetsurou smiled, as soft and fondly as he knew he could. “I’m not babying you. I know you’re tough enough to do this.” All he needed was a gentle shove in the right direction, and the reassurance that there was a safety net to catch him if something was to go wrong. “Let’s do this together, yeah?” 

Ever so slightly, Kenma nodded his head. “Together.” 

The worry hadn’t quite left his eyes yet, and there was no sign of a smile anywhere in his features, but that was okay. If Kenma was trying to convince himself that it was going to be alright, it was probably going to take more than a few kind words and a couple of minutes. 

With that, Tetsurou stepped to the side. “Then let’s go. We’ve got like fifteen minutes till the first period. We can go pick up your schedule and then find your first room. Maybe swing by the club sign up hall on the way.” 

“I’m not signing up for volleyball,” Kenma said, voice laced with more conviction than he’d had before. Tetsurou felt his heart swell with a little bit of pride, despite the words. “It was a nice try, though.” 

“Thought I may as well shoot my shot.” 

Tetsurou grinned. He knew today was going to be a good day, and he was already on the path of convincing Kenma of just as much. 

* * *

Tetsurou glanced down at his watch for the tenth time in the last five minutes. Time seemed to be going excruciatingly slow, and yet the minutes kept passing. 

He was sure that he and Kenma had agreed to meet at this gate at 3:10 to walk home together. It gave both of them ten minutes to gather their things and make it to the gate. Tetsurou had even been  _ early,  _ knowing Kenma would have hated it if he was left waiting there alone. And now it was 3:25, and there was no sign of Kenma’s familiar dark shock of hair and bright golden eyes anywhere. 

Had he gotten lost? Or god forbid, had something happened to him since Tetsurou had last seen him during their lunch break? Nekoma wasn’t known to have a bullying problem, and he was sure that no one would go after Kenma on the first day, but it had been fifteen minutes and Kenma wasn’t  _ here  _ and Tetsurou wasn’t sure what other possibilities there were. What if he was scared and alone somewhere? Then he’d never forgive himself for not meeting him outside his classroom instead.

Tetsurou glanced at the gate, then at the school, and then back to the gate. He could go look for him, but then he ran the risk of Kenma finally leaving and wondering where Tetsurou was. Or think he’d gone home without him. 

He mulled over the options until his watch read 3:28 and then decided he’d had enough. He had to go and find him. 

Just as he was taking the first steps back towards the main building, a voice intercepted him. “Kuroo? You never hang around this late unless practice is on, what are you doing?” 

Tetsurou looked across to see none other than Yaku Morisuke, hands on hips with raised eyebrows, awaiting a response that Tetsurou had to make sure couldn’t be used against him. They may have been friends, but they certainly weren’t close. Not close enough to warrant much good intention behind this conversation. Sure, both boys wanted to get over their rocky start last year, but it wasn’t like they were completely changed people after the new year, right?

“You’re here too, you know.” 

Yaku laughed, which Tetsurou tried not to let grind his gears. “I was asking a teacher about a schedule for this semester, I don’t want to get behind with maths again like last year. Something you should consider too. Now, why are you here?” 

“I’m waiting to meet someone.” 

“What, did a girl already stand you up on the first day?” Based on the smile on Yaku’s face (not a smirk, this was an important difference when it came to Yaku), he didn’t mean any malice behind the comment. 

“Not a girl, Kenma. Uh, the one I introduced you to this morning.” Tetsurou lifted an arm to rub at the back of his neck. Their meeting hadn’t gone badly, Yaku picked up on filling in Kenma’s silences pretty easily, and it got Tetsurou’s head thinking on how seamlessly Kenma would probably fit into their volleyball team. Not that he was going to try and push him into it - next year, when he or Kai were captain, he’d try again. 

Yaku’s eyes widened further. “Kenma stood you up? Timid, little Kenma?”

Tetsurou sighed. “He’s not timid or little, and  _ no,  _ my best friend of eight years didn’t stand me up, I just don’t know where he is. He was supposed to meet me here twenty minutes ago.”

The look of amusement on Yaku’s face was quickly replaced with one of concern. “Could something have happened to him?” 

It was nice not to be the only one worrying about Kenma for once. He’d always known Yaku was one to act like a concerned parent on occasion, he just hadn’t realised how quickly he’d gotten attached to Kenma. Not that Kenma was hard to get attached to, if the effort was made to look past his shy demeanour and get to know him. 

“I was literally about to go look for him before you spoke to me.” Tetsurou felt his heart speed up a little, how did he let himself get distracted at a time like this? He shouldn’t just be standing here and talking. 

Before Yaku could open his mouth, a soft voice made itself known from behind Tetsurou. “Go look for who?”

Tetsurou spun around as fast as his body would let him, and thankfully, the familiar face of his best friend greeted him. Tetsurou felt his shoulders sag in relief as he scanned his face. One hand was loosely clutching his PSP, and he didn’t look to be distressed. He was  _ okay.  _ Tetsurou let himself exhale, and he had to fight against the urge to pull Kenma into a hug, lest it embarrasses Kenma, or reveal just how fast Tetsurou’s heart was beating. 

“Thank god you showed up,” Yaku said, speaking before Tetsurou had the chance. “Kuroo here nearly had  _ kittens;  _ he was so concerned about you.” 

Kenma only looked up at Tetsurou, a look of horror distorting his soft features. “You weren’t kidding about having to talk using cat jokes?”

Tetsurou had never been more grateful for Yaku in his life _.  _ Good coincidences were a thing, after all. “Welcome to Nekoma, Kenma,” he teased, waggling his eyebrows at his best friend, trying to abstain from laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation at hand. He’d tell Kenma it was a joke someday - but he wanted to see if he could get Kenma to say at least one cat pun first. 

“I’ve got to go, but it was nice meeting you today!” Yaku said with a wave, walking away fast enough that Tetsurou almost would have said it was suspicious. He made a mental note to ask Yaku what that was about tomorrow, at least. 

But looking down at Kenma, any thoughts about anybody else simply dissipated. “Where were you, by the way?” 

The boys both began walking, falling into step beside each other. Kenma hummed before answering. “There was a club I wanted to sign up for.” 

This took Tetsurou by so much surprise, he simply stopped walking, his brain trying to process Kenma’s words. He’d willingly signed up for a club? Where he’d have to talk to people? On his first day of high school, of all times? Tetsurou simply couldn’t compute. His mouth gaped open and shut a few times, but words were failing him, regardless of how many questions he had. 

Kenma stopped, and turned his head over his shoulder. The afternoon light bathed him in a soft, orange glow, and his eyes seemed even more luminous. The second his lips quirked up slightly, Tetsurou knew his heart was absolutely done for. “I had been considering one, and I think I made my mind up about it.” 

Tetsurou blinked at him a few times. “I, uh, didn’t know Nekoma had a gaming club.” 

With a gentle furrow of his brows and head tipped to the side, Kenma said: “What club do you seriously think I joined?” 

To put it frankly, Tetsurou didn’t have the foggiest idea. As much as he  _ wanted  _ to get his hopes up, Kenma had plainly said he wasn’t going to join any sporting clubs. Maybe it was the robotics club. He’d always had an interest in technology in all its forms. 

Before Tetsurou could state his newest hypothesis, Kenma spoke again, voice as gentle as the breeze. “I joined Nekoma’s volleyball club, Kuro.”

There was nothing Tetsurou could do to withhold the smile that spread wide across his face, possibly the widest smile he’d given in months. Maybe, even, in his whole life. “You joined the team?” 

Kenma looked down again. “Well, I still have to try out. But if they take me, then yeah.” 

“Of course they’re going to take you, Kenma, you’re a brilliant setter.” Tetsurou’s heart was swirling in his chest. He was beyond thrilled to be able to play on the same court as his best friend again - and he knew the teammates in his year would adore Kenma just as much as he did. “Holy shit, you joined.” Tetsurou ran his hands through his hair, still processing this new world-changing information. 

“Can we keep walking now? I’m tired.” Kenma seemed to have absolutely no regard for Tetsurou’s display of joy. “If I knew you were going to make such a big deal about it, I wouldn’t have told you and just shown up to practice one day.” 

Tetsurou moved forward to fall back into step with Kenma. “Even you’re not that cruel. Can I ask why you changed your mind about joining, though?”

Kenma bit his bottom lip, and Tetsurou could have  _ sworn  _ that there was a pink tinge to his cheeks, although it could have been a trick of the light. “There’s someone on the team I don’t think I’d mind spending more of my time with.”

His heart dropped in his chest, for a moment. He was beyond happy that Kenma was making new friends, he just hadn’t expected this. “Did Yaku really make such a big impression on you? Oh, or was it Kai? He’s a good guy, and--”

Kenma turned his head to look at him, absolutely unimpressed. “I’m talking about you.” 

Just as quickly as Tetsurou’s heart had dropped, it sped up in his chest again, skipping a beat as it danced over Kenma’s words. Oh, what a rollercoaster of emotions this day had been. He was so certain he was grinning and blushing like an idiot, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. “Me?”

“You’re my best friend,” Kenma said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Why wouldn’t I want to spend more time with you? And I suppose volleyball isn’t too bad, either.” 

At sixteen years of age, Tetsurou realised that his feelings for Kenma were probably something more than a tiny crush, but he certainly didn’t regret them.


	3. Chapter 3

**3**

“Let me get this straight,” Tetsurou began, eyes staring into Kenma’s. “You thought adopting a random cat was a good idea.” 

Kenma nodded. “He needed a home.” 

“Your mother is going to kill you. And then me, for not stopping you.” 

Kenma rolled his eyes, flopping down onto his bed. “I’m not a permanent home for him, just until I can find him a new one.” 

“And this is why you jigged school today. To look after this cat and try to find a home for it?” 

“You keep asking me the same things, and every time I have the same answers. Yes, I found a cat last night. Yes, I took him home with me. No, I don’t plan on keeping him. Yes, this is why I skipped school. Yes, I know it wasn’t the smartest decision. Are there any more questions?” Kenma’s tone was agitated, and Tetsurou could see it in the way his shoulders were drawn up and he was nervously bouncing his leg. He huffed once he had finished speaking, and pulled his PSP from where it had been laying beside him into his hands, and held it up to begin playing - more likely as a distraction than because he was genuinely interested in playing. 

“Jeez, shoot me for trying to understand.” Tetsurou moved to sit on the edge of Kenma’s bed, like he had a thousand times before. Not close enough that it would encroach on Kenma’s personal space, but close enough to be a comfort. He hadn’t meant to agitate Kenma, but he was _really_ just trying to wrap his head around this situation. 

And based on the way that the tension dissipated from Kenma’s body a few moments after Tetsurou had sat down, Kenma knew this, too. He glanced at him, briefly. “You know I didn’t mean to snap at you. Sorry.” 

Tetsurou moved one hand to gently ruffle at Kenma’s hair. “It’s alright. I know. I do have one more question, though. If that’s alright with you.” 

Familiar buzzes and beeps filled the space between them, and Kenma didn’t appear like he planned to speak again, so Tetsurou continued speaking. “So, where  _ is  _ the cat?” 

“Oh, probably under my desk. I set him up on a bed there, and mom won’t see it,” Kenma said nonchalantly, as though he weren’t housing a cat in secret. “And before you ask, I ducked out today and bought some cans of food.” 

Tetsurou pushed off of the bed, and lightly stepped over to Kenma’s desk, careful not to move too fast or too loudly, lest he startle the cat apparently residing underneath. He slowly got onto his hands and knees to peer underneath the desk. And sure enough, a pair of bright amber eyes stared right back at him. The cat’s fur was dark, so dark that Tetsurou almost missed it underneath the desk, and based on its lazy body language, it wasn’t frightened of him at all. 

“What’s your name, little guy?” Tetsurou cooed at the cat. 

“What, now that you can’t ask me any more questions, you’re asking the cat?” Kenma deadpanned from his place on the bed. 

Tetsurou sighed. “Okay then,  _ Kenma,  _ what’s the name of this little guy?” The cat was still staring at him, gaze unblinking. 

Kenma didn’t answer him, but the continuous beeps from his PSP alerted Tetsurou that he hadn’t fallen asleep. 

“Kenma? You didn’t name him?” 

“His name is Kuro.” Kenma’s voice was soft, losing all the edge it had previously. 

Tetsurou could only grin at this revelation. “You named him after me?” 

“No, he’s black. So his name is Kuro. No connection to you at all.” Now, Tetsurou  _ knew  _ that wasn’t true. Kenma wouldn’t have hesitated before telling him if it wasn’t. 

But Tetsurou wasn’t going to make Kenma admit that. Not yet, anyway. It was enough for him to simply know, his heart was doing enough backflips without the admission. “You’re very uncreative with nicknames, aren’t you? I bet when you play Zelda games, you just name your character ‘Kenma’.” 

“Actually, I name them Link. Like any self-respecting person does.” 

“Video game snob,” Tetsurou said as he got back up off of the floor. “So what are we going to do with mini Kuro now?” 

Kenma shot up in bed, sitting to look back at Tetsurou from across the room. “We?” 

“I declare myself his second temporary parent. So yeah, we. If both of us try to find him somewhere to go, it’ll probably happen faster.” Tetsurou shrugged. 

“Thank you, Kuro 1.” 

An ugly snort left Tetsurou’s nose. “God, at least I’m Kuro 1 and not Kuro 2.” 

Kenma hummed, and shifted his tone back into a teasing one. “The longer Kuro 2 stays around for, though, the more likely he is to get a promotion. He’s getting cuter every time I look at him.” 

“You don’t think I’m cute?” Tetsurou pouted. 

“You wouldn’t be Kuro 1 if I didn’t think you were cute.” 

Tetsurou’s heart stopped, before it sped up, and pounded at his chest. He had been crushing on Kenma  _ hard  _ for a year now, and really - he’d hoped it would have passed on. Hoped that his heart had a little more integrity than this. But Kenma was still Kenma, and every day Tetsurou found another reason just to fall a little bit more in love with him. 

So instead of climbing out, Tetsurou only fell in deeper. 

And he was okay with this. 

Or at least, thought he was. But then Kenma would say something cute, and Tetsurou was affronted with the thought that  _ maybe  _ Kenma liked him too, before realising that Kenma would have said something if he was, and that he was getting his hopes up for nothing, and that if he kept this up, he was probably going to die old and alone and heartbroken. 

He knew he was overthinking it, but it didn’t stop his brain repeating the same cycle every time the rare displays of affection dripped like honey from Kenma’s stupidly perfect lips. 

“Hello? Earth to Kuro 1?” Kenma called again, snapping Tetsurou out of his mental spiral. “Help me come up with a plan.”

“Uh, we should check if he’s chipped first. Maybe he already belongs to someone,” Tetsurou blurted out. In hindsight, it was a pretty good panicked response. He knew Kenma would be able to tell he was flustered, but he was counting on his apathy to not ask  _ why  _ he was flustered. It was one of the things he’d recently discovered he loved about Kenma, he never pushed him to talk about anything if he didn’t want to. 

Kenma hummed again, putting his PSP down. “After school tomorrow then?” 

“Yeah, I guess. We can come back here and pick him up.”

“No.” 

Tetsurou’s brows creased in confusion. “No?”

“I can’t leave him home alone. Mom might find him. Or start sneezing.” 

Tetsurou tilted his head to the side. He didn’t know what Kenma was thinking about, and that terrified him. Kenma wasn’t one to have bad ideas. In fact, the majority of his ideas were brilliant (sans the ones where he pulled all-nighters to play video games), but the feeling in Tetsurou’s gut told him that this idea was going to be anything but brilliant. “You...want me to take him and keep him tomorrow?” Tetsurou asked, hoping that was what Kenma was alluding to. 

He hoped in vain. 

“I’m bringing Kuro 2 to school.”

“You can’t,” Tetsurou replied, trying to be a voice of reason. He knew Kenma loved cats, but he had absolutely no idea how he was going to pull this off. 

“I can. And I will.” Kenma’s eyes gleamed with an unspoken challenge, so intense that it almost made Tetsurou shiver. 

“A teacher is going to catch you for sure.”

Kenma gave Tetsurou his infamous ‘you think I haven’t thought that through yet?’ look, and Tetsurou just knew he was screwed. “A teacher won’t catch me if we share looking after Kuro 2 between the whole volleyball team. And if they do catch anyone, we can say he’s marketing for the team. With nationals around the corner… it’s believable enough.”

“Oh, so then when the teachers catch someone, it looks like it’s my fault.”

“Chin up, Mr Captain-of-the-volleyball-team, you’re almost impossible to dislike. The teachers will probably praise your ingenuity. That’s if they catch us, anyway. As long as Kuro 2 doesn’t end up in the hands of Lev or Tora, it’ll be fine.” 

Tetsurou blinked at Kenma. “Do you only use that brain of yours for evil?”

“No, I also use it for video games. Can you text everyone the plan?”

Another sigh escaped Tetsurou’s throat as he fished his phone out of his pocket. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

* * *

“Aw, he’s so cute,” Shibayama cooed at the cat in Kenma’s arms. He raised one hand out, inviting Kuro to sniff his hand before scratching him behind the ears. It was funny how despite spending two hours five times a week with his team, Tetsurou still learnt something new about them every day. 

Today’s facts were: Shibayama liked cats, Lev did not know how to hold a cat, and Kenma was an evil mastermind. 

The first two were self-explanatory enough, but what Tetsurou hadn’t counted on was that the mere second Kenma walked into the gym for practice that morning, the entire team was going to melt when they laid eyes on Kuro. 

Even Yaku, who was usually quite the stickler for the school rules, had seemed not to mind their new furry companion, volunteering to take him during first period. Kenma had thrown Tetsurou a very smug ‘told you so’ expression then. 

“How are we going to have practice when there’s a cat in here?” Taketora asked, glancing over to Tetsurou. 

Lev nodded enthusiastically. “He can’t play volleyball. He doesn’t have hands.” 

“We may as well all just have a cuddle session with Kuro? Uh, I mean the cat! Not you, captain.” Shibayama fumbled over his words, eyes growing wider. 

However, Lev seemed happy to cover for Shibayama’s babbling blunder. “He seems to be a very friendly cat. Even when I almost dropped him, he didn’t get mad.” 

This was the moment that Kenma chose to interject, holding Kuro closer to his chest. “He wasn’t friendly when I first found him. It took him a little while to warm up to me, but I’m glad I didn’t just walk away and give up, because he turned out to be a really sweet boy.” As Kenma spoke, his eyes locked with Tetsurou’s, and for a brief moment he wondered if it was just for comfort, or if Kenma’s words meant more. 

But he didn’t have time to dwell on it, as at that moment, Coach Nekomata walked through the doors to Nekoma’s gymnasium. “Why aren’t you boys doing stretches yet?”

Instantly they all looked to Tetsurou to be their spokesperson. If he had known that becoming captain meant covering for these clowns time and time again, he would have pushed Kai into it—he could still help the team out from vice, at least. 

But alas, here he was. “We have a cat, sir.” 

Coach Nekomata raised an eyebrow at them. “A cat?” 

Lev pushed Kenma forward, putting both him and Kuro in full display of Coach Nekomata. At this, Kenma looked both betrayed and anxious. Despite knowing the coach for a year, Kenma still hadn’t really gotten comfortable around him (and really, with Nekomata’s teasing, Tetsurou didn’t blame him). But Tetsurou knew it was the thought of breaking the rules in front of an authority figure like the coach setting Kenma on edge. And, well, Tetsurou couldn’t have that. 

With a couple of long strides, Tetsurou found himself standing right beside Kenma, one arm slung around his shoulder. “My cat, sir. For now. He’s named Kuro and everything.” 

Coach Nekomata smiled, the knowing smile that he had that left Tetsurou with absolutely no idea what he was thinking. But then, he stretched out his arms, gesturing to Kenma. “Well, hand him over. He can sit with me throughout practice, it’s not like you boys can run laps with Kuro. The cat one, anyway. The human one is running double.” 

Kenma looked mildly concerned about this, and looked up to Tetsurou for guidance. Tetsurou, however, was only trying to keep his laughter in at the ridiculousness of the last twelve hours. Of course their coach was willing to catsit during practice. Why on Earth had any of them expected anything else?

Upon taking in Tetsurou’s lax expression, Kenma took a few steps forward and deposited Kuro into the coach’s arms. “Don’t worry about your - I mean, Kuroo’s - cat, I’ll take good care of him for the hour.” Coach Nekomata began to scratch Kuro under the chin, looking very pleased with the relaxed nature of his new companion. “Now, the rest of you, go do your warm ups. Eight laps of the gym. And I wasn’t kidding about you doing double, Kuroo.” Tetsurou was certain the snicker he heard from behind him was from none other than Yaku, but he absolutely could not bring himself to care. 

“Yes, coach!” rang out through the hall, and they all began to run, Kuro’s amber eyes watching them run circles around him. 

* * *

“Now what?” Kenma asked. 

The trip to the vet hadn’t been a productive one. The vet had informed Kenma and Tetsurou that Kuro hadn’t been microchipped, and was probably a stray. When Tetsurou had asked them how they thought Kuro should be found a home, they could only suggest an adoption shelter. 

Kenma had shaken his head, thanked them for their time, paid their small fee, and walked out of there faster than Tetsurou had seen him go. 

“I was literally going to suggest an adoption shelter to you, but you didn’t seem to think that was a good idea,” Tetsurou replied with a shrug of his shoulders. 

Kenma sighed, and held Kuro closer to his chest. “What happens if he doesn’t get adopted?” 

“He would. He’s a cool cat.” 

“But what if he doesn’t?” Kenma asked, eyebrows scrunched together in concern. “Then what?” 

Tetsurou sighed. “We could hang posters around the neighbourhood? See if anyone wants a cat?” 

He couldn’t say he understood what had sparked Kenma’s attachment to this particular cat. Kenma passed strays every day, often enough he took photos of them to show Tetsurou later. But this time it was different. He’d never seen Kenma so dedicated to a cause in his life, perhaps with the exception of  _ God of War.  _ But if this was what Kenma had chosen to dedicate himself to, then of course, Tetsurou planned to be right by his side. Because Kenma was his best friend, and also because of the fact that it was enamouring to see Kenma so caught up in a real-world task. It was a whole new side to him. 

And Tetsurou was young, dumb, and gay, so he just fell just a little more in love. 

Kenma bit his bottom lip as he considered Tetsurou’s most recent proposal. “Do you think… we could hang posters around Nekoma?”

“I don’t see why not. Don’t you think the target market is a little small, then?”

“We’re not salesmen marketing a grand product, Kuro. I’d just rather he go to someone we already know. Someone who’s going to care about him as much as he deserves.” There was something distant in Kenma’s voice, the way it was when he spoke the truth, but withheld a part of it. And no matter how the gears in Tetsurou’s head turned, he couldn’t work out what it could be. 

“Alright, Kenma. We can make some tonight,” he finally replied, trying not to take too long to formulate the words. 

“Thank you,” Kenma mumbled. 

The sure smirk that Tetsurou was so accustomed to wearing spread itself across his face. “You know me, always helpful.” 

“You are. I appreciate you, Kuro.” Kenma shook his head slightly so his hair fell into his face, obscuring Tetsurou’s view of the side of his face. 

Tetsurou almost spluttered, biting his tongue to prevent himself acting like a fool. “Uh,” he stuttered, unable to make his mouth connect to his brain. “Thanks.”

Kenma’s shoulders began to shake, and it took Tetsurou a moment to realise Kenma was  _ laughing  _ at him. 

“Hey, what are you laughing at?” Tetsurou questioned, fingers poking at Kenma’s sides to snap himself out of the Kenma-induced stupor. 

Kenma jumped to the side to try and avoid the assault of Tetsurou’s fingers. “Don’t! I might drop Kuro 2.” Kenma’s voice was light, his gentle laugh reminded Tetsurou of delicate wind chimes. A pretty laugh - one Tetsurou loved to hear. He thought it was a shame that most people thought Kenma was inexpressive. He was one of the most expressive people Tetsurou knew, and the fact that most people hadn’t heard Kenma’s perfect laugh should have been considered a crime. 

They continued walking after that, Kenma not answering Tetsurou’s question, and Tetsurou not pushing him to answer it. He began to hum a tune that he couldn’t name, and realised it came from the game Kenma had been playing yesterday afternoon. 

A couple of steps from the Kozume household’s front door, Kenma spoke again. “Can we use your dad’s photocopier? It’ll be easy to make lots of copies that way,” Kenma asked. He turned his head to face Tetsurou, maneuvering Kuro so he had a free hand to brush his hair behind his ear. 

Tetsurou nodded. “Yeah, of course. You wanna get changed and then come over?”

Kenma hummed affirmatively. “The sooner we start, the sooner we finish. Then we can play games. Or try and see if Kuro 2 can learn tricks.”

“Sounds good to me.”

* * *

“Kuro, I don’t think we have to hang one every five metres. Anyone seeing this one surely would have seen the last one too,” Kenma mumbled, blinking at Tetsurou like he was some kind of fool. 

Tetsurou chuckled. “Well, while we were copying the posters last night,  _ someone  _ kept telling me we didn’t have enough, and to make more. So we should use them.” Tetsurou aligned another sheet against the cool brick wall, and pulled another piece of tape to stick it in place. “And now, since we have 100, I say we put them in every classroom.” 

Kenma sighed, but didn’t argue, instead choosing to watch Kuro plod around in a patch of grass, occasionally swatting at small bugs that flew by. The small cat never ran off, always choosing to stay within a twenty metre radius of Tetsurou and Kenma. Tetsurou wondered, idly, if all cats were all so well behaved, or if Kuro was special in some sense. Kenma thought he was special, at least. It was clear in the way that he spoke about him, his drive to help him, and the fond smile that inched its way across Kenma’s face as he watched the cat topple over. 

“Should we ask Bo to hang some around Fukurodani too? They’d be pretty decent people too. Or even Chibi-chan back at Karasuno. We could find a way to get him there. You could visit him too! Double win,” Tetsurou babbled as he hung the next poster. He was used to filling up silences when it came to Kenma. He never minded making enough conversation for the both of them, he knew full well that Kenma would interject if he wanted to. 

A soft hum left Kenma’s throat. “We could ask Bokuto. Maybe Keiji will want to help as well. If that fails, then we can ask Shouyou too.” 

Before Tetsurou could speak again, a new voice interrupted them. “We don’t have practice this morning, right?” 

Tetsurou and Kenma both turned to face the source of the voice, none other than Haiba Lev, staring at them with wide, panicked eyes. 

“No, Lev. We never have morning practice on Thursdays.” Kenma’s unimpressed tone made Tetsurou want to laugh, but he thought better not - someone had to stick up for Lev occasionally. 

“So what are you doing here, Kenma? You aren’t a morning person. I didn’t know you existed before midday.” 

Or, maybe, he had to stick up for Kenma. 

It was funny, Tetsurou often thought, how easily Lev managed to get on Kenma’s nerves. It wasn’t always easy to get Kenma frazzled. And yet, Lev always seemed to manage it in two sentences or less. It was clear in the glare Kenma was sending Lev, in his crossed arms and his drawn up shoulders. 

But based on Lev’s earnest smile and wide eyes, he hadn’t meant any offence by the statement, and somehow Tetsurou found that even funnier. He had to stop himself from laughing at his best friend’s disgruntled expression, though he was sure he was smirking - Kenma had always told him that when he tried not to laugh, he just ended up smirking. 

“Some of us have responsibilities,” Kenma snarked back, awfully defensive. It was true, Kenma wasn’t a morning person. Tetsurou couldn’t fault Lev, and yet Lev should have known that pushing Kenma’s buttons in the early morning would result in the cold treatment. 

“What responsibilities do you have? Can I help?” Lev began to bound over to Kenma, waving his arms in the air, expression bright and bubbly. Kenma, on the other hand, was wearing an expression of disgust, taking small steps backwards to try to escape Lev. Tetsurou raised a quick hand to his mouth to stifle his laughter at the scene. 

Kenma looked over to Tetsurou for help, but upon witnessing Tetsurou trying to hold in his laughter, scowled fiercely in betrayal. In a split second, however, a different expression crossed his face, his features smoothing out to a soft grin. “Go ask Kuro. He has ways you can help.” 

Tetsurou probably deserved that. Upon the instruction, Lev changed his flight path and instead made his way over to Tetsurou, sticking his hands out. “How can I help, captain?” 

Now, unlike Kenma, Tetsurou could probably be considered a morning person. But he was absolutely nothing compared to Lev. Bright eyed and bushy tailed Lev possibly rivalled the sun at this hour. It was an easy decision on Tetsurou’s part to put that enthusiasm to good use. “Well, Lev, we’re trying to find Kuro a new home. Since Kenma’s mother is allergic and he can’t keep him, we’re hanging posters to see if anyone’s interested. So,” Tetsurou said, handing half of his stack of posters into Lev’s eager hands. “You can hang one of these in the noticeboard of every classroom.”

Lev, ever the optimist, nodded enthusiastically, a grin spreading wide across his face. “I’m so happy to help with something as important as finding the kitty cat a new home! I won’t let you down!” And with that, Lev bolted into the doors of Nekoma High, leaving both Tetsurou and Kenma blinking in his wake. 

“I wonder if we could convert his energy into electricity. I bet we could power the whole of Tokyo,” Tetsurou mused, pushing his hair out of his eyes. 

Kenma sighed, blinking twice back at Tetsurou. “I think he could power the whole of Japan, Kuro. Not just Tokyo.” 

From his spot at Kenma’s feet, Kuro meowed, as though he was agreeing with the sentiment. 

“Let’s keep hanging posters now,” Kenma said. “I think there’s an inch of brick there you haven’t covered.” 

Tetsurou laughed. Maybe they had gone a tad overboard with the posters, but they’d gotten a laugh out of it, and it did technically increase the likeliness of Kuro getting adopted, so in Tetsurou’s eyes, this was a win. “I suppose we’ll have to cover it, then. Can’t risk anyone missing the posters.” 

Kenma nodded. “We’ve got to find him a home.” 

* * *

Nekomata’s whistle blew from the courtside, signalling the practice match was over. All at once, the squeaking of sneakers against the polished wooden floor halted, and all that could be heard was the huffing of players from either side of the net. Tetsurou hunched over, hands holding his thighs, to try and catch his breath. The third consecutive practice match for afterschool practice could only be described as exhausting, and it showed in their plays. By the last set, no one was running as fast, jumping as high, or serving with much force. Even Lev was quiet, a rarity. 

Tetsurou straightened his back to wipe the sweat off his brow, and let his eyes graze over the other members of the team. Kenma was laying on the floor, and if Tetsurou didn’t know better, he’d have said he’d fallen asleep. Next to him, Fukunaga was gently nudging his shoulder to check if he was still breathing, and Yamamoto was swaying slightly on his feet beside them. Shibayama was leaning against Lev, who was eyeing the water bottles across the room. Teshiro was whispering to Inuoka as they walked over to the towel rack, and Yaku and Kai were seated in the corner, looking just as beat as everyone else. 

While it was exhausting, it was a good chance to see where the crack’s in Nekoma’s gameplay were. When they were strained, Tetsurou was realising, their offence began to suffer. Both practice teams had struggled to score as points with ease, the match had only gotten slower and slower. At least their defence had stayed mostly solid. With that, they’d definitely have a fighting chance at Nationals this year. Nekoma was known for strong defence - it was a relief to know that it held up in the face of exhaustion. 

“You’re thinking too hard,” Yaku muttered from beside Tetsurou. He hadn’t even heard him get up and walk over to him, and Tetsurou was sure he jolted slightly. Yaku, for once in his life, said nothing about it. “Let’s catch our breaths before trying to locate all our cracks.”

“You’ve been spending too much time with Kai,” Tetsurou chuckled. 

From a few feet beside them, Kai raised a hand to his chest, clutching his heart in mock-offence. “What are you saying, captain? Am I a bad influence?” 

Tetsurou laughed again, breathy and soft. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to Yaku’s attitude.” 

A swift kick to Tetsurou’s backside had him stumble a few steps before regaining his balance, and really, he had no idea how Yaku had the energy left to do a high-kick like that, or that forceful. 

Before he could retort, Coach Nekomata blew his whistle again to gather everybody’s attention. “I think you’re all far too exhausted to do anything else today, so I’ll save my thoughts on today’s match for tomorrow morning. You boys all go home and get a good night's rest. I’d just like to talk to Kuroo before he leaves,” the coach added, gesturing his hand in Tetsurou’s direction. “And Kozume, too.” 

From across the court, Tetsurou saw Kenma sit bolt upright, no doubt anxious about why Nekomata wanted to speak to them. Tetsurou tried to offer Kenma a comforting smile, but Kenma wasn’t looking in his direction, instead choosing to stare at the ground. 

A soft “yes coach” radiated through the gym, and almost everyone got up to leave as fast as they could. Kenma, however, stayed on the floor, unmoving. Tetsurou sighed and shuffled over to his best friend, giving the coach an apologetic nod as he moved past. 

“Kenma,” Tetsurou said gently, crouching down in front of him. “Come on.” 

Kenma blinked a couple of times before looking up at Tetsurou. “What do you think he wants?”

“I don’t know, but it can’t be that bad. Maybe he just wants to give Kuro back to us. He was nice enough to catsit during another practice.” 

Kenma hummed in acknowledgement of Tetusurou’s words, before pushing himself to his feet, Tetsurou rising with him. Without another word spoken between them, they made their way to the coach. Nekomata was still sitting on the side bench, Kuro happily in his lap. 

“Coach? What can we do for you?” Tetsurou asked. 

“You boys didn’t tell me that this little fella was up for adoption,” Coach Nekomata said, smiling up at both he and Kenma. “I saw the posters on the way to the staffroom this morning. And if no one else has yet, I’d quite like to adopt him.” 

“You would?” Kenma asked, eyes wide.

Nekomata nodded. “I would.” 

Tetsurou looked over to Kenma, after all, this was Kenma’s decision. Tetsurou’s heart was warmed either way - Nekomata was a cat lover, and Kuro would be going to the best possible home. 

Kenma’s expression was slightly hard to read, most likely because it contained a multitude of different feelings. Relief that they weren’t in trouble for something, happy that Kuro was going to get a good home as he deserved, but also a hint of… sadness? It made sense, though—Kenma was attached to the small black cat. He probably hadn’t counted on saying goodbye to Kuro so soon. The thought even made Tetsurou sad. It was like saying goodbye to the best friend that he hadn’t even realised he’d made—he could only assume Kenma was experiencing that tenfold. 

Kenma forced his shoulders to drop when Tetsurou put a comforting hand on one of them. And the tension eased slightly out of his face, too. His brows weren’t so drawn, his neutral expression looked less forced, and Tetsurou found that he wasn’t as worried. His shoulders dropped too. 

“I think,” Kenma said, with a sense of finality in his voice, “that Kuro would be lucky to live with you.” He smiled then, warm and genuine at the coach, and without realising it, Tetsurou noticed he was smiling too. 

They’d done it. They’d found Kuro a loving home, and it hadn’t taken much time at all. It had to be fate. 

And based on the contented flick of Kuro’s tail from Nekomata’s lap, and the stretched out paw hanging out lazily, he was as equally happy to have a new family to belong to. 

With that, Kenma and Tetsurou said their brief goodbyes to their coach, as well as the friend they’d made in Kuro, promised to visit once they’d both graduated, and made their way out of the gym, a burden lifted off of their shoulders and their hearts just a little bit lighter.

* * *

Their walk home had been in silence. 

Usually, when it came to Kenma, silence was okay. Silence was comforting, and familiar, and  _ normal _ . But the silence today bore a tension that Tetsurou wasn’t familiar with. It was heavy, threatening to create cracks in the atmosphere between them without Tetsurou even knowing why. 

They should have been happy. They’d won today. Ultimately, they’d done exactly what they’d sought out to do - find Kuro a home where he’d be loved. Yet as soon as they had departed from the gymnasium, Kenma’s mood and only seemed to drop lower and lower - he hadn’t even pulled out his PSP to create an ambience as they’d walked. 

And in tandem, same as always, Tetsurou’s mood dropped also. 

He had hoped that Kenma would say something -  _ say anything -  _ about the matter at hand. Usually Kenma would speak when he wanted to, approach Tetsurou about his worries in his own time, and Tetsurou was okay with that. But the lip-biting and hand-wringing and shoulder-hunching that Kenma was currently displaying had Tetsurou on edge. He had always hated seeing Kenma upset, but the difference this time was he had absolutely no idea why. Sure, he could assume Kenma was sad about saying goodbye to Kuro, but this seemed beyond that, too extreme. The reaction didn’t equate to the situation. 

Tetsurou huffed, and stopped walking. 

Kenma took a few more steps before stopping too, but he didn’t ask why they’d stopped, or even turn around to face Tetsurou. His only movements were his shoulders shrugging up even higher. 

Tetsurou hadn’t planned out what he wanted to say yet. He probably should have thought that through before stopping, in hindsight. But seeing his best friend hurting over something he didn’t understand wouldn’t let his heart take another step without trying to help. 

“Kenma, can we talk?” Tetsurou asked, as softly as he could. The last thing he wanted to do was upset Kenma even further, but he couldn’t just leave him like this. 

Kozume Kenma, Tetsurou had found in his lifetime of knowing him, had many flaws. None were major, they were just little things that Tetsurou catalogued in the back of his mind. It was just part of being best friends, Kenma knew all his flaws all the same. 

Kenma was unmotivated at times, stubborn, a little judgemental, sarcastic, and was horrible at cooking. These, of course, were inconsequential to Tetsurou—they just made Kenma, well, Kenma. 

The flaw of Kenma’s that did concern Tetsurou was the fact that Kenma thought he could deal with everything on his own. The only times he’d ever approach Tetsurou about issues was when they became too overwhelming, when he was borderlining a panic attack and didn’t know how to cope any more. 

Over the years, Tetsurou had worn him down a little. He’d created an environment where Kenma felt he could talk about stuff, never turning him down or always reminding him he was there to listen. Kenma had done the same for Tetsurou too, over the years. Although his displays of affection weren’t usually verbal, it didn’t mean they weren’t there. He had his own ways of comforting Tetsurou. And right now, Tetsurou wanted to comfort Kenma, too. He didn’t want to wait until Kenma became consumed by panic. It wasn’t fair to Kenma at all to have to feel like that, when maybe, hopefully, it could be avoided. 

“Kenma?” Tetsurou asked again, when he realised he hadn’t gotten a reply, or even an acknowledgement. “I know you were attached to Kuro, but you seem so upset right now, and I’m worried about you and I just want to understand.” Tetsurou’s biggest skill in life was still word vomit, but he stood by every word that rolled off of his tongue without his brain’s approval. 

“It’s not… just that,” Kenma’s voice was soft, almost carried away by the gentle breeze that was blowing. He looked small in that moment, his oversized Nekoma jacket seemed to swamp his wiry frame, and the way he was slightly hunched made him seem even shorter than he was. Tetsurou wanted to hug him. He found that he wanted to hug Kenma a lot, actually. 

Tetsurou took one tentative step forward, slightly bridging the gap between himself and Kenma. “Then what is it?” 

Kenma took a deep, shaky breath in, and let it out. And then took another, and this time, he spoke. “You asked me a lot of questions in the last couple of days. Question, after question, after question. But you didn’t ask me the one I wanted you to ask.” 

Well, if Tetsurou wasn’t confused before, he certainly was now. It was true, he had asked a lot of questions. He didn’t think that it had been all that out of character for him, _but what_ _hadn’t he asked?_ He asked Kenma where he found Kuro, what he planned to do with him, where he was keeping him, and every question in between. And yet he couldn’t think of what Kenma could possibly be referring to. 

As though Kenma could sense Tetsurou’s confusion, even with his back turned, he continued speaking. “I wanted you to ask me why. Why I cared so much.”

“I-” Tetsurou started, even though he still didn’t know what to say. He could feel his heart hammering away at his ribcage in worry of what was going on. He hadn’t realised he’d gotten so caught up in Kenma’s worry that he’d barely processed his own. 

The hard truth was that he was terrified right now. This was barely a conflict, but he’d never been unsure like this when it came to Kenma, of all people. Kenma was a comfort, like a second home that Tetsurou hadn’t realised he belonged to until long after he’d moved in. “I don’t think I follow.”

“Ask. I want to do this now. I’m going to do this now.” Kenma said this in a way that made Tetsurou think he was talking to benefit himself, not just Tetsurou. 

It seemed his next words had been chosen for him. “Uh, why?”

Kenma’s shoulders began to shake, and for the briefest, scariest moment of Tetsurou’s life, he thought Kenma was crying. Tetsurou hadn’t seen Kenma cry since they were twelve and his Pokemon Red save had been wiped by a weird glitch, and he lost his completed Pokedex. Kenma crying was a terrifying concept. 

But then Kenma turned around, and all that fear welling up in Tetsurou’s chest cavity got expelled. Kenma was laughing his soft laugh that Tetsurou wanted to bottle and save for every rainy day. “God, Kuro, you don’t have to sound so terrified. I should probably be the scared one right now.” 

“I’m sorry?” Tetsurou said. He tried to force a grin, but he knew Kenma would see right through it. 

Kenma instantly averted his gaze back to the ground. “I thought you’d pick up all the hints I was dropping.” 

Tetsurou blinked, giving his brain a moment to try and work out what was going on, and when it still didn’t compute, he tilted his head to the side. “Hints?”

“I’ve been dropping hints for over a year now.” And this time Kenma’s eyes became shiny with a sheen of tears, and Tetsurou thought that he was probably about to start crying for real. That made Tetsurou’s heart dully begin to ache in his chest.

And Tetsurou still had absolutely no idea what was going on. So he stayed quiet, tried to ignore the swirling in his gut, and listened to Kenma. “When I found Kuro on the side of the road, he was really shy. Really quiet. Wouldn’t come near me. But the longer I sat in his presence, the more comfortable he got. He walked over and sniffed my hand when I stuck it out, and let me pet him, and so on. And then I found out that once he warmed up to me, he even became more social with other people.”

Tetsurou nodded. While he loved listening to any story Kenma would tell, he didn’t think he had grasped the significance of this one yet. 

“And it wasn’t only because he was a black cat that I named him ‘Kuro’, but I think you knew that already. I named him that because he reminded me so, so much of you. Seeing you go from that shy, anxious kid who couldn’t even talk to me, into the leader for so many that you are now. And I guess that made me love him.” Kenma took a deep breath, and his eyes briefly flicked up to the sky in what appeared to be a silent prayer before looking Tetsurou in the eyes. “And that’s because I love  _ you. _ ” 

_ Oh.  _

Tetsurou thought that if he was one of Kenma’s video game systems, he would have crashed. Maybe just completely short-circuited. But perhaps the aerobic routine his heart was performing inside his chest was the human equivalent. 

Kenma loved him. 

_ Kenma loved him.  _

He had so, so many things to say. Questions, comments, even a whole confession he’d rehearsed a million times for the day where he could be brave enough. 

But right now, he just had to know he was interpreting this correctly. He had to take this one step at a time, or surely his heart was going to combust. “Me?” 

Kenma emit a sound somewhere between a huff and a laugh, and sniffled afterwards. “Kuro. Tetsurou, I should say, I guess. You’ve been by my side my whole life. You know me better than anyone. Hell, you know me better than I know myself. And not only that, but you’re the warmest, smartest and most selfless person I’ve ever met. You didn’t really give me any other choice but to fall in love with you.”

Tetsurou was certain he was blushing like a beet. Kenma’s face was just as flushed, right to the tips of his ears.

Kenma lifted his hands to wipe furiously at his eyes. “I feel so stupid. I thought maybe you felt the same. And so I started dropping hints. Like flirting, and comments, and stuff, you know? And you never said anything… So I am so sorry if I made this awkward between us, but it was so hard to not tell you. I just-”

Tetsurou’s eyes widened, both at the words, and the new bout of tears in Kenma’s eyes, and he knew he had to get his tongue to cooperate. He forced his stomach back down his throat, and took two more steps forward, completely closing the gap between himself and Kenma.

He moved his hands to cup at Kenma’s face, using his thumbs to wipe away any tears before they fell. “Kenma. God, Kenma. I love you. I’m  _ in love with you _ . I’ve loved you for so long, I just didn’t think you felt the same. But in every sense of the words, I love you.” 

That confession that Tetsurou had rehearsed had been lost in what was the void of his brain, only replaced with ‘Kenma!’ But he hoped his words got the point across. Hoped that Kenma knew exactly how Tetsurou felt about him in this moment, and had felt about him for as long as he could feasibly remember.

And based on the way that Kenma gasped, and his eyes widened, he did. 

At seventeen years old, Kuroo Tetsurou finally got to tell Kozume Kenma that he loved him, and he thought that he’d be happy to be able to do that for the rest of his life. 


	4. Chapter 4

**4**

“Come on, it’ll be fun,” Tetsurou pleaded for what felt like the hundredth time that evening. 

He was sprawled across Kenma’s dorm room bed, head hanging off of the edge, ignoring the blood rushing to his head and making him dizzy. 

Kenma, on the other hand, was seated at their shared desk, one hand cupping his chin, and the other idly tapping his pen against his workbook, not paying one shred of attention to Tetsurou. “I have… stuff to do.”

“Am I stuff?” Tetsurou teased from his place on the bed, which prompted Kenma to throw a balled-up piece of paper at him. 

“You won’t be if you keep annoying me.” 

“Aw, Kenma. I’m wounded. That’s cold, even for you.” 

“Where do you want to go again?”

“Oh my god, you weren’t even listening to me. You were just baselessly saying no. I think this must be what heartbreak feels like.” Tetsurou sat up and perched himself on the edge of the bed, one hand clutching at his heart, prompting Kenma to roll his eyes at the theatrics.

“God, you should have gone to acting school. I’m just teasing you.  _ Tanabata  _ Festival. Next weekend. Bokuto and Akaashi will be there too, but we won’t see much of them, because Bokuto’s going to take Akaashi to write their wishes together and he’s going to confess. So we can just ‘hang around and chill out and get food, maybe look at the pretty sights. Spy on them if we get the chance’. I do listen to you.”

Tetsurou’s mouth gaped open, even though he tried to hide the surprise on his face. Kenma, scarily enough, seemed to have gotten better at multitasking. Tetsurou wondered if he’d be able to dodge street lamps on his own while walking and gaming now, but that was an experiment for another time. “So?”

“We haven’t done something in forever, I guess I can take one weekend off from comp-sci assignments. Plus, I do love to spy on Keiji.”

“And I like to spy on Bo. That’s why we’re soulmates,” Tetsurou grinned. “I’m really excited to go with you, by the way.”

Even from where Tetsurou was seated, he could see the crimson blush spread across Kenma’s face, and his lips quirk up slightly at the edges. Kenma had always smiled when he’d blushed, and in Tetsurou’s humble opinion, it was one of his most endearing traits.

“I guess I’m excited too,” Kenma said, pushing his chair back before standing upright. He glanced over at Tetsurou, before arching his back and lifting one arm up to stretch. This action caused the hem of his t-shirt to ride up slightly, revealing an absolutely scandalous sliver of skin above the waistband of his sweatpants that Tetsurou found his eyes drawn to immediately. 

And Tetsurou should have known that this was a trap, because when he finally pulled his eyes away to look at Kenma’s face instead, he found that he was being coyly smiled at. “See something you like?” 

“When it comes to you? Always.” The words rolled naturally off of Tetsurou’s tongue. He meant them, after all. “I like you a lot, actually.”

Kenma’s smile softened into a fonder one, and he walked over to Tetsurou with a subtle sway in his hips. He sat down just in front of Tetsurou, and pressed a chaste kiss to his jaw. “Thank you for forcing me to get out sometimes.”

“Thank you for always indulging me,” Tetsurou cooed back, grabbing Kenma’s hand in his own, lightly tracing patterns into the back of it. Kenma hummed contentedly, shifting his position so his back was pressed against Tetsurou’s chest, but making sure he didn’t let go of his hand in the move. Tetsurou thought it was terribly endearing how Kenma didn’t like breaking contact. He began to trace heart patterns into the back of Kenma’s hand and wrist instead of the circles he had previously been drawing.

Kenma smiled again as he noticed the hand gesture change. “You’re such a softie. Everyone’s always telling me that you look intimidating, and it’s so funny how wrong they are. You remember Suzumeda?”

“One of Fukurodani’s managers back when Bo was captain?” Tetsurou was one who loved to reminisce about his high school days, but Kenma wasn’t. That’s what made this conversation so surprising. He hadn’t even realised Kenma knew Suzumeda. 

“Yeah, her. I remember talking to her and Keiji at one of the training camps when I was in second year. She looked at me and made a funny comment. Something like ‘your friend Kuroo seems so scary, I don’t get how you’re shy around everyone else except him’.” 

“Well that seems… nosey? Did she talk like that a lot?” Tetsurou hadn’t gotten to have that many conversations with Suzumeda, and Bokuto hadn’t talked about her often enough for him to gauge her personality all that well. 

Kenma huffed with laughter for a moment. “No, no, she wasn’t nosey. She was actually really nice. That conversation was Keiji’s fault, technically. Something about how I should talk to more people. You know what Keiji’s like. Always trying to improve people’s lives.” 

“And by ‘improve’, you mean politely meddle,” Tetsurou nodded. He knew exactly what Akaashi was like. He never meant any harm, but he cared for his friends so much that he often found small things for them to do to try and help. Last week, he had bought Kenma a bottle of vitamin gummies, and Tetsurou a new hair gel. It was just Akaashi being Akaashi. Which was why, of course, Tetsurou had to know that Bokuto’s confession was going to go well. Because both he and Akaashi deserved that sort of happiness. 

Kenma gently hummed in affirmation. “Yeah, but that’s not why I brought this up. I meant that it feels like most people see you as this intimidating and scary jock-type, but to me you’ve always just been Kuro. And I don’t know. Sometimes I wish more people saw you in the same light that I do, but other times, well, I feel special that I’m the only one that gets to see it.” 

Tetsurou couldn’t see Kenma’s face from the angle he was at, but he could see how the tips of his ears were a burning red, and knew that his face would be sporting the same blush. Kenma was cute in that way. When Tetsurou teased that Kenma was ignoring him (which, of course, he only meant in jest), Kenma always tried to make up for it in some show of affection. And no matter how many times Tetsurou told him that he didn’t have to push himself out of his comfort zone like that—that Tetsurou knew he loved him—he still did it. 

And each time, Tetsurou was sure his heart was going to melt. Warmth spread through his body, emanating from his chest, and he was certain that he was blushing too. With his free hand, he brushed some of Kenma’s hair to the side so he could press a trail of delicate kisses from his neck down to his shoulder, before mumbling a quiet “I love you” into his skin. 

He didn’t give Kenma the chance to reply before delving into his own dramatic monologue. 

“You know, you’re the same way. Everyone tends to see you as a shy, timid introvert. And I’ve gotta be the luckiest guy on the planet to have always been able to see through that. To see someone wickedly snarky, and intelligent, and funny, and interesting and so many other words that I could be here all day listing. But more than that, I’ve also gotten to watch you grow.” Tetsurou took a brief pause to give Kenma the chance to tell him to stop if he was overwhelmed, or make any other comment. But a warm silence welcomed him instead, and he knew what he had to do to get Kenma talking again. 

“And when I said grow, I didn’t mean height-wise-” 

Kenma instantly turned to face him, wearing the same crimson blush that Tetsurou knew he would be, as well as a cranky expression at the quip that he was putting on for show. “Maybe Suzumeda was right. Maybe you are mean and scary.”

“She didn’t say that!” 

“She didn’t. But it’d be funny if she had.” Kenma turned around again, leaning back against Tetsurou and pulling their still-intertwined hands to his chest. “You’re so comfy. Do you mind if I nap here for a little?”

Tetsurou smiled. “Only if I get to keep talking about how much I adore you.” It was a rare occasion that Kenma hadn’t silenced him before he got carried away, or found a way to completely derail the conversation. They’d been dating for almost two whole years now, and Kenma still struggled to accept the compliments that Tetsurou tried to give him. Even though he’d been complimenting Kenma long before they were anything romantic, it seemed that Kenma struggled with them even more now. 

And Tetsurou, being the walking sap he was, really, really wanted his boyfriend to know how incredible he was. 

Kenma hummed, maneuvering himself into a comfortable position, his head laying on Tetsurou’s lap instead of his chest. He didn’t, however, let go of his hand. Cute. “Let me know if you get a cramp.”

Tetsurou grinned - he’d just been given the green light to say the thing that’s been playing on his mind for weeks, if not months. He moved his free hand to gently card through Kenma’s hair, gently pulling it out of its bun. It had gotten so long, and one of Tetsurou’s favourite feelings was the silkiness of Kenma’s hair between his fingers. 

“What I was trying to say before was that everyone sees you as this quiet and shy introvert. But I’ve always gotten to see you as something else, too. And lately, well, especially since your last year of high school, you’ve been growing so much that other people get to see the Kenma that I’ve always seen too. And I’m really proud of you,” Tetsurou said with a gentle sigh at the end. 

Kenma turned around so the back of his head was resting on Tetsurou’s thighs so he was looking up at him. “You think I’ve changed?”

Tetsurou nodded earnestly. “Maybe you don’t see it. But you have. Definitely. You’re incredible.” 

At this, another soft pink blush spread across Kenma’s porcelain skin, and the corner of his lips quirked up, and Tetsurou’s heart swelled with pride that he could still fluster Kenma this long after knowing him. “Such a sap.” 

“A sap who loves you.” 

Kenma gave Tetsurou’s hand a light squeeze before whispering: “I love you, too.”

And before Kenma turned back around to resume his nap, Tetsurou had the life-altering realisation that  _ he had definitely found his soulmate,  _ though perhaps something inside of him had known all along. This, he was certain, he wouldn’t trade for the world. 

* * *

Kenma, as it had turned out, got increasingly nervous about going to the festival as the day approached. In the days leading up to the weekend, he confirmed the plans with Tetsurou, as well as Googled how to get there and what to expect numerous times. Before they’d left their dorm the evening of, he’d been active, pushing Tetsurou to get ready faster so they could meet with Akaashi and Bokuto, lest they be late. Then they had arrived at the train station, and once he’d seen the hordes of people lined up at their platform, he began to get fidgety, more nervous. 

And then once they’d gotten on the packed train, it had only gotten worse. Kenma’s leg began to bounce, and he kept looking around the carriage to plot a non-existent escape route. Akaashi, ever observant, had tried to push as close as he could into Bokuto to give Kenma the maximum amount of space, but even then, it was a tight fit. He supposed that they should have seen this coming, Saturday night during one of the region’s most famed festivals was bound to attract people.

Tetsurou wrapped an arm around Kenma’s shoulders, pulling him closer. “If you don’t want to go, I can fake a stomach ache. You did say my acting skills were incredible, right? We can just go home. Watch a movie?” 

Kenma turned his head upwards to face Tetsurou, biting his bottom lip. “No, I want to go to the festival.” 

“Okay,” Tetsurou said, not letting go of his boyfriend’s shoulders. Kenma eventually leant back into the touch, releasing a fraction of the tension in his body. 

The train continued to rumble along, occasionally making stops where a few more people tried to squeeze into the carriage. One man shuffling past accidentally elbowed Akaashi in the stomach, causing him to wear the most disgruntled expression any of them had ever seen on his usually-passive face. It even got a soft snort out of Kenma. 

Tetsurou continued to rub gentle, reassuring circles into Kenma’s shoulders and back until their train finally came to a halt, and they all shuffled out of the carriage, into, thankfully, some open air. 

“I think we should leave late tonight so we don’t have to cram like sardines back into a train with the rest of Tokyo,” Akaashi lamented, eyes downcast, as he tried to straighten out his sweater. 

“I’m genuinely considering walking back,” Kenma added. 

Bokuto chuckled out a laugh at the reaction of the two. “Kenma, it’s like a three hour walk.”

“Kuro can carry me.”

Tetsurou could only shrug and nod. It wasn’t like Kenma weighed all that much, and Tetsurou certainly didn’t mind being in close physical contact with him for that long. And the perk of being an athlete was that he knew he was in shape enough to do it.

From beside him, he could have sworn he heard Akaashi whisper “whipped” under his breath, but didn’t have the chance to respond before Bokuto began to march in the direction of the festival, causing the other three to follow him. 

The festival was nice and warm and bright, and having Kenma beside him made it even better. The star-shaped lanterns hung in rows above their heads, bathing the entire festival in a gentle orange glow that reminded Tetsurou of the hundred sunsets he’s watched. And better than that, the lights bathed  _ Kenma  _ in that same glow, and his eyes appeared luminescent as they looked back up at Tetsurou, and he had to fight every urge in his body not to stop in the middle of the path and kiss him. 

Kenma leaned in closer to Tetsurou, both affectionately and to protect himself from the crowds. It was funny, Tetsurou realised, that he’d barely noticed how packed this festival was, even though it was thousands and thousands more than had been on that train. 

He did only have eyes for one person, it seemed. 

He was only vaguely aware of his surroundings. Booths lined both sides of the wide footpath, some game stalls where children were throwing balls at tin-cans to win little prizes. Small food stalls, with items ranging from takoyaki to taiyaki, all with queues that looked at least thirty minutes long. Kenma, however, was constantly scanning his surroundings. Tetsurou just knew he was building a mental map of the festival, ready for any situation that could occur. 

As they continued to walk, Bokuto grew increasingly quiet, pointing out fewer things, making fewer exclamations. Akaashi noticed this immediately, and in Akaashi-fashion, asked Bokuto if he was feeling unwell, and told him he had painkillers in his pocket if needed. Bokuto tried to deny this, and Akaashi began to try and feel Bokuto’s forehead for a potential fever.

“Pains of the heart cannot be quelled by potions,” Tetsurou muttered under his breath in response to the display his friends were putting on, a few passer-byers turning to watch. 

Kenma looked up on him, face contorted in disgust. “Did you get possessed by a poet back at the book stall?”

Tetsurou snorted. “No, I just know how Bo feels. Confessing is scary.”

The expression on Kenma’s face did not shift, but he blinked a couple of times. “You have no idea. I confessed to you.”

“You did,” Tetsurou agreed. “But that’s why I know how scary it is. I don’t think I could have worked up the guts to do it, let alone in public.” 

Kenma’s expression shifted from disgust to mild horror. “Oh my god… he’s going to do it in public. Poor Keiji. He’s gonna feel awkward.”

“As if he’s going to turn him down anyway.” Tetsurou knew they were just as whipped for each other. He’d heard them both lament it over bottles of soju when the other wasn’t around. This was going to end like a fairytale. 

“But they’re going to have an audience. Kuro, we can’t associate with them after that. What if it goes up on YouTube?”

Tetsurou solemnly nodded, he didn’t quite want that either. “We’ll stay like, 10 metres away. They won’t know we’re there.”

Kenma hummed. “As long as we have a good filming angle. Maybe we can capitalise on it. Upload it ourselves or sell such a romantic confession to some movie company.” 

Tetsurou didn’t get the chance to explain what a horrible idea that probably was before Bokuto interrupted them again. “Uh, guys, Keiji and I are going to write wishes now!” He was bouncing on the balls of his feet, staring between Kenma and Tetsurou. 

This was what they’d rehearsed. Tetsurou knew what he had to say next. “Oh, that’s a shame! Kenma and I were gonna go check out the, uh, food stalls. I am hungry.” 

Akaashi’s eyebrows furrowed slightly. “We can wait for you guys if you want?”

At this, Bokuto’s eyes widened in panic. Tetsurou idly wondered if he should have found a more practical way to confess. 

“It’s okay,” Kenma added. “There’ll be too many people there for me right now anyway, and I want to spend a little bit of time with Kuro.” 

Kenma was, once again, an evil genius, as Akaashi couldn’t find a single rebuttal for that. He smiled, looked over to Bokuto one last time, and said, “If anything happens, please call me.”

Akaashi and Bokuto turned around, Bokuto mouthing a ‘thank you’ to Tetsurou and Kenma, and for some odd incomprehensible reason, Tetsurou felt like he’d just released his children into the wild. 

“Are we really just letting them go?” Kenma questioned from beside him, sharing the same sentiment. 

Tetsurou sighed. “What do you think we should do?”

Kenma laughed sweetly as he pulled Tetsurou’s hand into his own and began to follow Bokuto and Akaashi. “You already know the answer to that.”

* * *

“What’s taking them so long?” Kenma huffed impatiently. He was currently standing beside Tetsurou, the both of them taking refuge behind a shrub that has been decorated with starry banners. 

They both had their eyes glued to Bokuto and Akaashi, close enough that they were in perfect sight, but far enough that they couldn’t hear what they were saying amongst the murmur of the crowd. Which was for the safety of himself and Kenma—they’d never live down spying. 

Bokuto and Akaashi were both in casual conversation, people streaming past them to hang their wishes along the wall. 

“Bo’s stalling,” Tetsurou said with conviction. 

“Koutarou never stalls.”

“He also never confesses his love to his best friend.” 

This, Kenma couldn’t possibly argue with. He just sighed again, a crease forming between his brows. Tetsurou reached across to smooth it out, muttering something under his breath about premature wrinkling, but Kenma just swatted his hands away, scowling further. 

Before Tetsurou could poke fun at him for being such a grump, Bokuto and Akaashi suddenly began to move up to the wall of wishes. Kenma tugged at Tetsurou’s sleeve to draw his attention to where they were exchanging tokens at a booth for small wooden plaques to write their wishes on. 

Tetsurou took a deep breath. “Here he goes.” 

Both of their eyes were trained on Bokuto’s movements as he shifted the plaque and permanent marker between his hands. They watched as he opened and closed his mouth, Akaashi seemingly oblivious to this strife as he began to write on his own plaque. 

“Say it!” Kenma hissed from their spot. He had gotten so engrossed into the scene playing out before them that he was subconsciously leaning forward, clutching onto Tetsurou’s wrist with an iron grip. 

And then, the most miraculous thing happened. 

Bokuto didn’t confess. 

Instead, Akaashi turned around to face him. Tetsurou knew something was about to happen. Kenma’s gasp only confirmed this. 

As though the world was happening in slow motion, Bokuto and Akaashi froze, staring at each other. 

“Come on, come on,” Tetsurou found himself whispering, a silent plea for them to do  _ anything.  _

Wordlessly, Akaashi lifted his wooden plaque up to Bokuto. There were a few words— _ no, a wish _ —written in his perfect penmanship right across the middle. 

_ ‘I wish for Bokuto Koutarou to return my affections’ _

Tetsurou lifted a hand to cover his mouth in surprise. He certainly hadn’t seen this coming. And based on Kenma’s silence from beside him, he hadn’t predicted this either. 

Passer-byers turned their heads as they walked past Akaashi and Bokuto, but neither seemed to pay anyone else any attention. They were both frozen in place in their own little world, Akaashi nervously biting his bottom lip, and Bokuto with his jaw dropped. 

Just as Tetsurou was about to become convinced that Bokuto was going to just continue standing there in a stunned silence, he finally spoke, his words so loud that they could be heard even from where he and Kenma were standing. 

“God damn it!” 

“Fuck,” Tetsurou swore under his breath at the same moment that Kenma facepalmed beside him. 

“I was gonna confess first! I had it all planned out and everything!” Bokuto continued, amassing more stares from confused strangers. “I was gonna tell you that I wanted to make all your dreams and wishes come true after we hung our wishes up!” 

“Oh god, that was his plan?” Kenma whispered. “Run, Keiji, run.” 

Tetsurou lightly elbowed Kenma, earning a soft grunt in protest, eyes still glued to the scene unfolding before him.

Instead of looking distressed, much in the way that Tetsurou expected Akaashi to look at that reaction to his confession, he was  _ smiling.  _ It was a smile of relief, and Tetsurou couldn’t help but notice how his shoulders sagged instantly. He didn’t look upset, or mad, or dejected. He simply nodded, and mouthed something inaudible to Bokuto.

Bokuto began to ecstatically nod, and he and Keiji then shuffled over to the board of wishes. Wordlessly, they made their way to the front of the crowd, and Akaashi lifted his plaque and hung it on a peg with countless others. 

He then turned to look back up at Bokuto, who was grinning at him. “So, ‘Kaashi, can I make your wishes come true?” 

A smile even brighter than the one he’d worn before crossed Akaashi’s face - maybe the warmest one Tetsurou had ever seen him give. And then he was nodding, and then launching himself into Bokuto’s arms, and Tetsurou thought that this was one of the happiest things he’d ever gotten to witness. 

He turned down to make another comment to Kenma, only to find that his boyfriend was also smiling fondly at the scene, a complete dichotomy to his earlier comments. 

“I’m happy for them,” was all he said, intertwining his hand with Tetsurou’s.

Tetsurou nodded. “Like seeing our kids grow up and be happy.” 

Kenma huffed with laughter, and tore his eyes away from Akaashi and Bokuto’s hushed conversation to look back at Tetsurou. “Should we give them their privacy now?”

“Yeah,” Tetsurou replied without a shred of hesitation. Not because he didn’t want to see any more of the moment two of his best friends had been dreaming of for ages, but because he had a couple of other priorities he wanted to sort out. “I kind of wasn’t lying about being hungry earlier.”

“Then let’s go,” Kenma said quietly, turning away and pulling Tetsurou along with him. 

* * *

Their night was seemingly uneventful after that. 

They queued up at one of the closer food stalls for what felt like hours, Kenma spending most of it leaning against Tetsurou because it was ‘too much effort to stand’. They ordered an assortment of things to share, and camped out on a patch of grass to eat. It was pleasant, much as any time alone with Kenma was. It was filled with idle talk that Tetsurou found he enjoyed, words floating from both he and Kenma’s lips that neither had to think twice about. Comforting, calming conversation that he wouldn’t trade for the world. 

Once they’d eaten and sat and basked in each other’s company long enough for both of them to get leg cramps, they decided to move on. It had been long enough that many families were clearing out, taking any younger children home. It meant less crowds. It meant Kenma was more comfortable holding Tetsurou’s hand in public. 

They made their way back to where Bokuto and Akaashi had confessed a few hours earlier. This time, though, to make wishes of their own. Tetsurou, predictably enough, wished for success for both himself and Kenma in the future. Kenma had always said that making the wish for two people wasn’t how it worked. But the way Tetsurou saw it, they’d been a package deal since they were children. There was no use separating them now in the eyes of a higher power. 

Kenma still smiled when he read Tetsurou’s plaque, the tips of his ears burning red, and then held his own up for Tetsurou to see. 

_ ‘I wish for Kuro to have a future that makes him happy.’ _

Tetsurou couldn’t stop the fond smile crossing his face. It had been something he’d discussed with only Kenma—that he didn’t know what to do with his future. That he was scared he’d end up somewhere he was unhappy. 

Kenma always reassured him in the moment, and even went as far to make job suggestions to Tetsurou, something to work towards. They’d attended seminars, and career expos, and flicked through job ads, and nothing had ever felt  _ right.  _

But standing there, watching Kenma hold a little plaque wishing for his happiness, he worked something out. No matter where he ended up, what he ended up  _ doing,  _ he was already happy. 

Because Kenma made him happy. 

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Kenma mumbled, pulling Tetsurou out of the warm place his mind had gone to. He hadn’t noticed he’d been staring, hadn’t realised it was probably making Kenma uncomfortable. Public displays of affection were not something Kenma was keen on, and having Tetsurou stare at him for a prolonged period after a move like that probably wasn’t as encouraging as it should have been. 

He’d make it up to him, though. 

“Because I’m already looking at my future that makes me happy,” Tetsurou whispered back, sure that only Kenma was able to hear it.

The corners of Kenma’s lips curled up. “Did you get that line off of Koutarou?”

“Came up with it all on my own, actually.” He leaned across to lightly tug at Kenma’s hand, pulling him over to the board where they could hang their wishes side by side. Kenma gave Tetsurou’s hand a squeeze once they’d hung them up. 

After that, they decided to casually stroll around a little longer. Neither Akaashi or Bokuto had texted them, and they could only assume they were enjoying their first real date in such an idyllic setting.

They took photos together, Tetsurou was very quick to set one of the two of them holding sparklers as his lock screen. He pretended he didn’t notice when Kenma did the same thing, angling his phone to where he thought Tetsurou couldn’t see. 

“Okay, do you think I can win one of the festival games?” Tetsurou asked, gesturing vaguely to a stall they had just passed. A ring toss, it seemed. 

Kenma regarded the stall Tetsurou was pointing at with a keen observation. “They’re all rigged.”

“How can you rig a ring toss?”

“I don’t know. Magnets?” Kenma shrugged.

“I’ll use my amazing volleyball-induced aiming skills to outsmart the magnets, then,” Tetsurou said with a finality as he turned to march over to the stall, giving Kenma no choice but to follow with a roll of his eyes. 

Besides, Tetsurou had a plan now.

“Hello! How do you win the big plushies?” he asked the bored looking stall worker. 

The boy regarded him for a few moments, then looked back down to his phone. Tetsurou didn’t blame him - manning a stall for hours on end did seem like a boring task. From underneath his cap, the boy mumbled: “You just have to get four out of five rings on the pegs.” 

“How rigged is it?” Kenma asked from beside Tetsurou, his eyes glued to the pegs in front of them. 

The boy looked up at Kenma and tilted his head to the side, as though he were saying ‘ _ do you really think I bother rigging this? _ ’ 

Before either of them could speak, Tetsurou handed a bill to the employee. “I’d like to try, then.” 

Without any words, the boy pocketed the cash and handed Tetsurou five wooden hoops. Tetsurou thanked him before turning to Kenma again. “You’re about to watch magic happen.” 

It was clear by the twitch at the corners of Kenma’s mouth that he was trying to suppress a smile. “Should I film this, then? Immortalise the moment?”

“No, my brilliance is too grand to be captured on camera. Just watch.” Tetsurou, of course, only said this incase he did fail, which he had a chance of doing. He knew Kenma wouldn’t do anything with the video, but… he’d still rather there be no proof at all. 

Kenma only huffed, and Tetsurou turned away again to focus his attention on the pegs. He gripped one of the rings in his hands, angled his elbow, considered that the wind was blowing slightly to the left, and let it fly. 

The ring missed spectacularly, landing nowhere near the pegs, and instead thumping to the ground about two feet to their right. He may have overestimated the wind's power, just a little. 

Kenma’s little, almost inaudible, huff of laughter only served to make Tetsurou want to win more. 

“That was just a practice round,” he said to nobody in particular. “To test the wind speeds.”

The shop clerk gave him a funny look, and he was sure the expression his boyfriend was throwing in his direction wasn’t much more fond. But he would  _ not _ be deterred by a couple of disbelievers. He could pull this off. 

This time, when Tetsurou threw his ring, it landed right on the middle peg. He didn’t turn around to gauge Kenma’s reaction, but he could tell by his silence that he was watching, now engaged in the activity. 

Sometimes dating Kenma was like owning a cat—he had to dangle a toy in front of his eyes to catch his interest. 

Tetsurou’s third and fourth rings also landed on their respective pegs, and Tetsurou puffed out his chest a little. It wasn’t showing off, really. Just pride that he could actually manage. 

“It’s the last ring,” Kenma whispered from behind Tetsurou, bringing Tetsurou back to the terrifying reality he was now in. 

He had an eye on the prize, and it all came down to this ring. 

“Kenma, will you please kiss the ring for good luck?” Tetsurou asked, turning around and holding the ring out expectantly. 

Kenma, much as expected, looked at Tetsurou as though he’d come from outer space. “You want me to kiss a dirty metal ring.”

“You’ve always been my good luck charm, come on,” Tetsurou pleaded. “I don’t want to mess this up.” 

It was a joke Tetsurou had been making for years—that as long as Kenma was by his side, something good was bound to happen. And then one day, it stopped being a joke and became something Tetsurou found himself very much believing in. Because Kozume Kenma being right there beside him his whole life certainly must make him the luckiest man on the planet.

Kenma rolled his eyes, kissed his own fingertips, and then lightly tapped them against the ring. “There, now it has my luck.”

With a thankful nod, Tetsurou turned back around and took his ain. He bent his elbow, turned his shoulder slightly, and let the ring fly. 

And fly it did. Right onto its own peg. 

He’d won. 

Tetsurou pumped his fist in the air. “See? Not rigged!” He turned back to Kenma, who was still staring at the fifth ring Tetsurou had tossed, unblinking. 

And then Kenma smiled, and Tetsurou thought it was more luminescent than every star that this festival was celebrating combined. 

With his goal back in mind, Tetsurou turned back to the boy manning the stall. “Can I get that one?” Tetsurou asked, pointing to a black cat plushie hanging on the back wall of the stall. The boy didn’t say anything, but unceremoniously pulled the large plush toy off the wall, and handed it to Tetsurou. 

Once he thanked the boy again, Tetsurou held out the toy to Kenma. “A kitten for my kitten.” 

“I think he’s a little too big to be a kitten,” Kenma said, pulling the large white toy into his chest. “Thank you, Kuro.”

Tetsurou wrapped his arm around Kenma’s shoulders as they departed from the stall. “You don’t have to thank me for that! He’s our son now.”

“I wasn’t thanking you for Mochi.” 

“I see we have named our son Mochi,” Tetsurou joked, giving the toy a small poke in Kenma’s grip, which Kenma frowned at him for. It was cute how Kenma had already become attached to the toy—both because it was a cat, and a gift from Tetsurou. 

Kenma sighed. “I was thanking you for making me come out tonight. I… had a lot more fun than I thought I would.”

And just like that, Tetsurou’s heart picked up in his chest, fixated on Kenma’s words. “Thank you for coming with me.”

Kenma turned up at him and smiled sweetly. And Tetsurou did his best to ingrain the image into his brain, because this was a moment that he wished to remember forever, arm wrapped around the love of his life, under the warm glows of lanterns illuminating their faces, filled to the absolute brim with happiness. 

At nineteen years of age, Kuroo Tetsurou realised that he didn’t need to write a wish on a plaque for it to come true, because he was already standing with his arms around the greatest good he could ever wish for.


	5. Chapter 5

**5**

**Kenma <3: i’m sorry kuro, i think we’ll have to postpone tomorrow night. work picked up, and we have a friday deadline. (21:34)**

Tetsurou’s eyes skimmed the words on his phone screen a couple of times, willing them to change, but ultimately feeling his heart drop a little when he realised that no matter how long his eyes lingered on the words, they were bound to stay the same.

Really, he shouldn’t be so disheartened. He was so unbelievably proud of his boyfriend and everything he was achieving. Between streaming, and running a company, and participating in professional tournaments, _and_ staying on top of the stock market, Tetsurou wasn’t even sure how Kenma found time to sleep. He only had to think about a quarter of Kenma’s success for his heart to swell with pride and tears to sting his eyes. 

But that didn’t mean he didn’t miss Kenma terribly. They’d barely gotten to spend any quality time together lately—not how they used to. Long gone were the days of camping out in Kenma’s bedroom and playing video games, or trudging down to the volleyball courts and practising, or impromptu dates that turned into makeout sessions that left Tetsurou breathless, or even just enjoying each other’s silent company sitting in a university dorm. 

Graduating had left Tetsurou with mixed emotions. While he was more than thrilled to be done with university, there was something odd about moving into his own apartment. It forced him to face the full fact that he was an adult now, and with this came very adult responsibilities. Like bills, and taxes, and the consideration of his new job. Luckily, his apartment was only a twenty minute walk from the JVA's main office building, which was convenient. 

However, it was also twenty whole train stops (and one crossover) from Kenma. Once Tetsurou had graduated, Kenma, with only one year to go, had also decided to move off campus too. He was making more than enough money to do so, and had relocated into his own _house,_ close enough to the university that it was only a fifteen minute commute each day for him. 

And once he’d graduated last year, he stayed there. 

Somewhere in the back of Tetsurou’s mind, he’d expected them to move in together. There was no reason for Kenma to stay where he was, but if he was attached to the house—well, then Tetsurou would just make the longer commute each day to work. But Kenma hadn’t brought up the subject of moving in together, so neither had Tetsurou. He didn’t want to pressure Kenma into anything, and he knew how much Kenma liked his own space. They were both real adults now, and could deal with a little bit of distance, after all. 

Tetsurou could only hope it was just growing up, and not growing apart. He didn’t know what he’d do with himself if they drifted any further away from each other. 

But instead of dwelling on it, like he almost caught himself doing, he knew that maybe he should talk to Kenma. At least see where his other half’s head was at about everything. If anything, maybe Kenma was stressed and would appreciate the listening ear. Communication was key in any relationship, Tetsurou had learnt over the years.

So without any further hesitation, Tetsurou pulled out his phone and dialled. It only rang twice before Kenma’s familiar voice spoke through the line. “Kuro?”

“Kenma,” Tetsurou drawled over the phone, elongating the ‘a’ long enough that he knew Kenma was rolling his eyes. “Hi.”

“Hi. Is everything okay?”

Hearing the concern creeping into Kenma’s voice put Tetsurou’s heart at ease. He wasn’t sure if that was childish, nor did he really care. Kenma still cared about him, that was all he needed to know. “I just missed your voice.”

“I miss you too,” Kenma said, voice soft. “I’m really sorry about missing tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry about it, you go kick ass on your project. We can catch up when it’s done?” Tetsurou hadn’t meant for that to turn into a question, and yet it slipped out of his mouth anyway. 

Kenma sighed. “It won’t be done for months, but the character sheets and voice scripts have to be done by Friday, and the development team needs careful overseeing, if you get what I mean.” The more that Kenma spoke, the more Tetsurou realised just how exhausted he sounded. And it hurt his heart a little. He wanted more than anything to reach out and hug Kenma, and maybe run him a bath and then play with his hair until he fell asleep, much as they had done in simpler times. 

“I didn’t mean to call if you’re tired, Kenma. I’ll ring you back tom-”

“No!” Kenma cut Tetsurou off immediately, so abruptly that he almost dropped his phone in shock. “I mean, please stay on call. I want to talk to you more.” 

Tetsurou felt his eyes well up with a fresh round of tears. Perhaps he’d missed Kenma even more than he’d realised, or perhaps the validation that he was wanted meant more to him than previously thought. Or maybe he was just getting too sentimental in his old age. 

“You’re thinking sappy thoughts. I can basically feel them through the phone,” Kenma whispered. Tetsurou was so certain that he said it with the intention for it to tease, but instead it only highlighted the fondness in Kenma’s voice. 

“I am very happy to admit I always have sappy thoughts of you,” Tetsurou stated. “That’s kind of my thing.”

Kenma laughed, the pretty, genuine laugh that Tetsurou loved to hear more than anything in the world. “I’ve been thinking a lot about you too, lately.”

“Well, now you have my interest. What’re you thinking about?” Tetsurou was not certain what direction this conversation was heading in, but he didn’t mind that. Any conversation with Kenma was a conversation worth having. 

“What a dork you are.”

“Aw, Kenma, I thought you were going to say something more exciting. Like ask what I’m wearing,” Tetsurou said, trying to hide the smirk in his voice. 

Kenma laughed again, and Tetsurou felt his heart swell with affection at the thought that he didn’t have to think all that hard about what to say to get Kenma laughing—it still came naturally, even after all this time. 

Once Kenma had regained his composure, he spoke again. “How about I ask you… what you’ll be wearing on Saturday night. If you’re free, that is.” 

“I thought you had a lot of deadlines. Don’t you stream on Saturday nights?”

“And I’m literally going to go insane if I don’t take one night off and spend it with my favourite person. I’ll stream Sunday morning instead. Are you free?” Kenma’s voice was soft over the receiver, crackling slightly in the way that phones did. 

Tetsurou smiled, exhaling. “I’m free. Do you want me to pick you up around 7?” 

“I’d like that a lot.” 

* * *

Kenma answered the door almost instantly when Tetsurou had knocked that Saturday. 

There was no awkward moment. No small talk of ‘you look nice’ or ‘how have you been?’ Instead, Tetsurou leant forward to wrap his arms around Kenma in a hug, which was graciously returned. 

And just like that, they slipped back into their comfortable routine. Two puzzle pieces slotting perfectly together. 

As soon as they parted, Kenma looked up at Tetsurou, and he could instantly tell that there was something on Kenma’s mind. It wasn’t the usual job-induced stress, nor the general anxiety kind. 

“Is everything okay?” Tetsurou asked, not sure how to broach the subject otherwise. 

Kenma tilted his head to the side slightly. “Why wouldn’t it be? Is everything okay with you?” 

“You know I’m always okay when I’m with you,” Tetsurou replied, making a kissy face at his boyfriend. Kenma blushed slightly, and leant into Tetsurou, prompting him to wrap an arm around Kenma’s shoulders. 

“Thank you for this,” Kenma said as they began to walk down the street to where Tetsurou was parked. 

Tetsurou smiled, and nudged Kenma’s leg lightly with his own. “Nothing to thank me for, just glad to see that you haven’t drowned in contracts.” 

No more words were spoken as they got into the car, Kenma quickly changing the radio station from whatever Tetsurou had been mindlessly listening to on the way there to another that they both liked. 

“Where are we headed, by the way?” Tetsurou asked. When he’d texted Kenma last night asking where he wanted him to make the reservation, Kenma only replied that he’d already made one.

“Do you remember that restaurant we went to on a double date with Keiji and Koutarou back when we were at uni? The one with the really great salmon? There.”

Tetsurou momentarily looked over at Kenma with wide eyes. “What? The fancy one?”

“Just because they serve wine in those chiller buckets doesn’t make it a fancy restaurant, Kuro,” Kenma said, lifting his hand over his mouth to hide his smile. “It’s a normal restaurant. We just thought it was fancy because we were broke college students.”

“Ah, how our youthful eyes saw the world in such vibrant ways.”

Kenma shook his head. “It was just over two years ago. We haven’t changed all that much.” 

Tetsurou reached across the console of the car to pull Kenma’s hand into his own, intertwining their fingers. He’d missed how perfectly Kenma’s lithe fingers fit between his own. Another puzzle piece back in place. 

“I think we’ve changed a little. You’ve matured.” 

“Maybe,” Kenma said, accompanied with a hum of consideration. “I don’t feel like I’ve matured.”

The next street they turned into had a long strip of numerous streetlights, illuminating the inside of Tetsurou’s car. And more importantly, illuminating Kenma’s face, so Tetsurou could see the way Kenma smiled when Tetsurou said: “Just because you still stay up till 3 A.M every day playing Mario Kart doesn’t mean you haven’t matured.”

“Mario Galaxy, I told you,” was Kenma’s reply as he gave Tetsurou’s hand a squeeze. “Last night it was Mario Galaxy.” 

“I am so sorry, world-famous Kodzuken, for getting the name of a video game wrong. Please don’t do an expose video on me,” Tetsurou teased, causing Kenma to lightly nudge him with his free hand. 

“It’s going to be a whole expose series, actually. Too much to fit in one video.” 

Tetsurou’s jaw dropped in mock-horror. “I will post childhood photos of you on the internet, do not test me.”

Kenma bit his lip in the way he always did when he tried to stifle a laugh. “Then I’ll post photos of your emo phase.” 

“Kozume Kenma, my eyeliner was amazing, I will not accept any criticism.”

“Was not.”

“Was too. I looked sexy.” Tetsurou pouted his lips once he’d said that, and it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Kenma immediately laughed, snorting slightly in his attempt to hold it in. Tetsurou joined him moments later, laughing so loudly it drowned out the radio completely. 

They made pleasant small talk after that, Kenma talking about the video game he was developing, and Tetsurou explained the JVA’s marketing scheme for next summer. 

Before they knew it, they’d reached the strip of road where the restaurant was located. Tetsurou found parking only a couple of feet away, and reminded Kenma that he really was a good luck charm. They made their way into the restaurant, and Kenma was quick to dart over to where a waiter was standing behind a desk.

“There should be a reservation for two? Under ‘Kozume’.” Kenma had his ‘business person’ voice on as he spoke to the waiter, and Tetsurou thought it was the cutest thing on the planet. 

As the waiter flipped through his pages to look for their reservation, Tetsurou came to a horrible realisation. This was a fancy restaurant. And he was horribly underdressed. 

Once they had gotten seated and Kenma ordered a bottle of red wine, Tetsurou couldn’t keep his mouth shut any longer. “You said this wasn’t a fancy restaurant.”

Kenma bit his bottom lip. “I had ulterior motives.”

“Oh my god, what motives? Is this for the expose video?” Tetsurou said. He wasn’t really mad, and he knew Kenma knew that based on the smug look on his face. 

“The rolled up sleeves,” Kenma whispered, nodding his head towards Tetsurou’s shirt. “If we go to a casual place for date night, you wear a shirt with rolled sleeves. If I tell you it’s fancy, you wear a jacket over the top.” 

Tetsurou pinched the bridge of his nose. “I can’t believe this. Are you trying to tell me that I have nice arms?”

“You know that I think that you have nice arms,” Kenma said. 

And if this wasn’t proof that Kenma had grown bolder and more confident over the last few years, then Tetsurou would be damned. 

Tetsurou tried his hardest to stay calm, but he knew he was blushing all over, his whole face burning. “You’re going to be the death of me.”

“It’s payback for that time you said I had a nice ass in the locker rooms back in high school.”

“Have you been holding onto that grudge for six years? I told you I was sorry that Lev heard!” Tetsurou laughed, hiding his eyes behind his palms. 

Kenma tried to clear his throat to avoid laughing along with him. “Lev pestered me for the next three weeks to ask if we were dating—and if we weren't dating: ‘do you feel comfortable with Kuroo-san talking about you like that,’” Kenma said doing his best impression of high-school Lev, forcing Tetsurou to clutch his stomach to hold onto his laughter.

“Lev was a sweet kid, but we both know he would have killed me if you told him I made you uncomfortable. He idolised you.” 

“I should capitalise on that. I was once idolised by an international supermodel,” Kenma joked before grabbing and flicking through one of the menus on the table. “Who would have thought.”

Tetsurou had missed this—missed how easy it was to fall into conversation with Kenma. He didn’t have to think too hard, and he knew he didn’t really have to go out of his way to impress him. Kenma just saw Tetsurou as, well, just Tetsurou. 

And that went both ways, too. The longer they spoke between them, the more Tetsurou noticed that Kenma was able to relax. His shoulders dropped, and that anxiety he seemed to be carrying earlier dissipated into easy smiles and lax movements. 

Tetsurou truly was a fool for thinking they’d really grown apart. 

“You’re not underdressed, by the way,” Kenma added, eyes still skimming over the items on the menu. “It’s a shirt and nice pants.”

A huff of laughter left Tetsurou’s throat. “What if I wore a t-shirt?”

“You never wear a t-shirt to date night. Not since you graduated, anyway.” 

There were no words to explain the way Tetsurou’s heart beamed in that moment. Tetsurou knew that he knew everything about Kenma, but he often forgot that it could go the other way as well. Just in the way that he loved Kenma, Kenma loved him too. 

Their conversation fell into one about food after that, both trying to decide the best things for them to order. Kenma, ever the creature of habit, picked the salmon on rice that he knew that he enjoyed last time. Tetsurou decided that he would simply have whatever the special of the day was, saving him having to come to a decision.

The food arrived within minutes, and Tetsurou said, glaring at Kenma, that “instant food is how you know the restaurant is fancy.”

Kenma shook his head and asked if McDonalds was considered fancy as well, and Tetsurou promised himself he’d never try to pick a fight with Kenma again. 

Tetsurou’s fish soup was wonderful, and even Kenma leant over the table to try some, commenting how it reminded him of the soup Tetsurou’s own grandmother had made when they were young. 

Once they’d finished eating, and had a few conversations about work and travel plans for next year, Kenma’s demeanour changed again. He went from animatedly talking, to downcast eyes and biting his lip, talking less and less, and clearly thinking more. 

“Something on your mind?” Tetsurou asked, pouring his boyfriend another glass of wine. God knew he looked like he needed it. He tried to keep the concern out of his voice, but he knew it crept in there around the edges. 

Kenma swirled the wine in his glass, just watching it. “Just a life decision.” 

“Life decisions are a pretty big thing, y’know? It’s okay to be nervous about them. Want to talk it over?” Over the last couple of years, Tetsurou had always been the one who found comfort in discussing his life plans. Kenma had always been a listening ear, giving advice where it was asked, and encouraging him to go and interview for jobs that he thought he wasn’t qualified enough for. Kenma pushing him to apply for the job at the JVA had gotten him to where he was now. 

And he really wanted to pay that back. But with Kenma, he hadn’t really had to. Once Tetsurou had told him that it was a good idea to develop a start-up company, Kenma had been off, climbing higher and higher each day. He hadn’t thought twice about it, and just made the decisions that he thought would lead to success. Tetsurou called him a mini miracle maker, and Kenma loathed the nickname, but it was true. There weren’t many people who were clever enough to be successful in so many different areas.

“I want to discuss it, but it involves you too.” 

Tetsurou grimaced for a moment, which Kenma noticed instantly. 

“Not a bad thing, I promise. Don’t… look like that,” Kenma spoke softly, the ambience of the restaurant around them almost drowning him out. 

Tetsurou forced a smile. “Just say what’s on your mind, kitten. Put us both out of our misery here,” he joked, which Kenma seemed to appreciate, as the ghost of a smile found its way across his face. 

“I think I’ve fallen into the same trap that I did in high school. The ‘waiting for you to take a step instead of taking it myself’ thing. I should have learned by now, but here we are,” Kenma said, taking a sip of his wine. And then he kept sipping it until he had downed the entire glass in one go, and Tetsurou found himself both concerned and impressed.

Kenma looked at Tetsurou then, awaiting a response. Tetsurou could only nod in understanding, trying to signify to Kenma that everything was okay. “Yeah, alright. What sort of step were you thinking?”

Tetsurou was trying to stop his mind from going to terrible places. He knew Kenma loved him - he’d told him as much already tonight. He didn’t want time apart, surely. Not the way some people in long-term relationships did, claiming that they wanted to meet new people before settling down. That wasn’t Kenma’s style, nor was it Tetsurou’s. 

_But what was it, then?_

Kenma didn’t say anything. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights for a moment, eyes wide, as though he couldn’t answer the question. 

And he continued not to say anything, instead slipping a hand into the pocket of his jacket and pulling something out, and sliding it across the table to Tetsurou. 

Tetsurou sucked in a deep breath, and looked down. 

He didn’t know what he was expecting, but somehow what Kenma handed him still exceeded every expectation he’d ever had. 

Down on the table was a singular key, with a keychain of a mostly-white calico cat hanging off of it. Tetsurou reached out slowly, and ran his fingers over the metal. “Is this…?”

“A key. To my house. Uh, our house. If you want, that is.” Kenma began to tap his fingers nervously against the table, and Tetsurou had to physically restrain himself from getting up and giving his boyfriend a kiss right then and there. 

Tetsurou grinned at Kenma wholeheartedly, happiness radiating out of every inch of his body. His heart felt light, the way only one person had ever made it feel. 

As soon as Kenma processed the fact that Tetsurou was smiling, he leant back in his seat, relaxing as well. 

“I’ve just missed you so much lately,” Kenma said, and Tetsurou could have sworn his eyes became glassy there. “And this seemed like the best way to see you more often.”

Tetsurou reached across the table, and gripped Kenma’s hand in his own. “Of course I want to move in with you.”

“For now,” Kenma interjected. 

With those words, Tetsurou was launched back into uncertainty. “I- excuse me?”

“We can go house-hunting together later. To find a place that’s in a good location for the both of us. And really have a house that belongs to us both.” 

Tetsurou could have sworn that in that moment he fell in love with Kenma all over again. Most people on the planet wouldn’t associate Kenma with being sweet or thoughtful, and yet Tetsurou had gotten to see that side of him for years now. 

He took the key into his free hand, and couldn’t help but laugh at the cat keychain Kenma had chosen. It was perfect, everything about this was perfect. 

“Kenma?” 

“Yeah?” Kenma tilted his head slightly. 

“Thank you. This means a lot to me, really. I can’t wait to wake up next to you every morning.” 

Tetsurou could have said more. In fact, he almost did. He could have said how he was looking forward to breakfast together every morning, and how he planned to kiss Kenma before he left for work every morning. He could have said how he looked forward to watching movies together when they finished work for the day, and how he was very much excited to cuddle whenever they were both able to, not having to navigate twenty different train stops to be able to reach out and hold Kenma’s hand. 

But Kenma was smiling, the lightest blush dusting his cheeks a soft pink, and Tetsurou could tell that he already knew all of that. And more importantly, was looking forward to it just as much—was just as giddy right now as Tetsurou.

At twenty-four years old, Kuroo Tetsurou could easily say he was moving into a phase of his life that made him truly happy, and that was because he knew he’d be able to share every single day with Kozume Kenma. 


	6. Chapter 6

**+1**

“I told you we should have brought an umbrella,” Kenma said dismally, looking up to the sky as though it had wronged him personally. The two of them were currently standing in the doorway of a Chinese restaurant where they’d picked their dinner up from. “I hate getting wet.”

Tetsurou sighed, watching the rain continue to patter down. “I’m a terrible husband, I know. Next time, I’ll psychically predict the weather better.” 

They stood there, waiting for the rain to let up for a few more minutes, but the universe did not have mercy on them. It seemed the rain only got heavier, coming down louder and louder before them.

“Kenma, if we don’t start walking now, the food is gonna get cold.”

Kenma sighed, and stood closer to Tetsurou, as though he could use him as a human shield against the rain. “Fine, let’s walk fast.”

“Can your little legs walk fast?” Tetsurou teased, wrapping one arm around Kenma to try and keep him warm, his other hand holding the plastic bags their food was in. 

Tetsurou tried not to laugh at the unimpressed look Kenma was throwing him, doing his best to keep his eyes straight ahead to protect himself from the full severity of Kenma’s glare. 

“My feet are wet,” Kenma lamented, seemingly moving on from eyeing daggers at Tetsurou and concerning himself with more important matters. 

“Kenma, I adore you, seriously, but maybe this is the push you need to stop wearing socks with slides. I know it’s comfy-” 

“First you forget to bring an umbrella,” Kenma interrupted. “And then you have the gall to insult my fashion sense.”

“You call that a fashion sense?” Tetsurou asked, trying to keep the laughter out of his voice, but completely failing. 

Kenma nudged into Tetsurou’s ribs with his shoulder, causing Tetsurou to fumble slightly. “You think it’s hot.”

“No, Kenma, no! I think _you’re_ hot. Not whatever you have going on with your wardrobe, jeez.” 

Kenma turned his head away from Tetsurou to hide his smile as they walked, and Tetsurou saw how his hair was thoroughly soaked through, much like the rest of him. Tetsurou internally planned out the rest of their evening: once they’d eaten, he was going to run them both a warm bath to warm up again, and then they could sit under the covers of their bed and watch a movie or play a game. 

Kenma’s soft snort pulled Tetsurou out of the future and back to his sopping wet present. “Your hair is sticking down.” 

“And that’s funny?” 

“I don’t recognise you without the bedhead. Who are you and what have you done with my Kuro?” Kenma stuck his tongue out then, and if they weren’t already both soaked to the bone, Tetsurou would have splashed him in retaliation. 

Tetsurou shook his head and sped up their pace, dragging Kenma along with him. Their favourite Chinese restaurant was only a couple of blocks from their house, they’d be back and able to dry off soon enough. 

He looked down at Kenma, just to survey how wet he was. If he thought Kenma looked soaked before, he looked even worse now. There was water dripping off of his nose and chin, his hoodie was so soaked through that it was shining under the streetlights, and his sandals were making such a loud squelching noise with each step that even the ongoing drumming of the rain couldn’t drown it out. 

Tetsurou was certain he didn’t look any better. Next time he’d just skip leg-day and get dinner delivered. Or cook himself. Not that he planned to tell Kenma this. 

And then Kenma stopped walking. Tetsurou was forced to stop as well, not wanting to break apart contact with Kenma. 

“Kitten?” Tetsurou asked, brows creased together in concern. “It’s raining still.”

“Kitten,” Kenma said, not making eye contact with Tetsurou. 

“Do… you have an issue with the nickname?” Tetsurou had been calling him that for… forever, really. He’d never protested it before, in fact, he had told Tetsurou specifically that he liked it. “Because I can call you something else?”

“What? No,” Kenma replied, shaking his head slightly. “I mean, I thought I just saw a kitten behind that bush.” His own words seemed to cause him to spring into action, unlooping his arm from around Tetsurou’s and shuffling over to a roadside garden they had passed moments before. 

Tetsurou stood and watched Kenma lean over into a bush, and fumble around for a few moments. He waited, dumbfounded, before he thought he should probably go and assist. With a few long strides, he found his way beside Kenma again. “What are you looking at?”

Kenma emerged back from the bush, wet leaves stuck in his hair. “There’s a kitten back there, and it looks scared and wet. I can’t reach it though.” Once he said that, he took a step to the side, letting Tetsurou closer to the large bush. 

Tetsurou handed the plastic bag with their food in it over to Kenma, and leant forward into the bush, trying to shift apart its leaves with his hands to get a better view of where this cat was. “Agh, Kenma, the plant is spiky!” 

“It should be to the left a little, right in the back against the wall.” Kenma tried to speak loudly so Tetsurou could hear him over the rain. 

Tetsurou sighed, and continued digging through the shrub to try and locate the kitten. A few moments (and two splinters) later, Tetsurou finally saw it. Wide green eyes stared up at him, the small kitten shaking in the rain. The wetness was causing its fur to stick down to its body, highlighting just how frail its little frame was. Tetsurou’s heart hurt just looking at how small and cold and _scared_ this little cat appeared. 

He knew what he had to do. 

He reached forward, quickly so the kitten couldn’t run away in panic, and pulled it out of the bushes. It mewled loudly in protest, but didn’t try to scratch or bite him in any way. Tetsurou could feel the way it shook in his hands. 

As soon as he stood upright and faced his husband again, Kenma’s eyes widened at the sight of the kitten. He held out his hands for Tetsurou to pass it over. Tetsurou happily obliged, taking back the plastic bag, and depositing the kitten into Kenma’s open arms. 

It was barely the size of one of Kenma’s forearms, fitting snugly into his arms as he pulled it into his chest. It seemed to stop trying to get away, most likely preferring Kenma’s body heat to the rain. 

“Let’s take it home,” Tetsurou suggested, earning a nod from Kenma. They began to walk even faster than before, accompanied by the sounds of the steady patter of the rain around them and Kenma occasionally cooing at the kitten in his arms, trying to calm it. 

Within a few minutes- undoubtedly their record speed- they reached their front door, grateful for the warmth greeting them as they swung the door open. Kenma instantly turned and made his way into their first-floor bathroom, and Tetsurou abandoned their food on the kitchen bench before joining him, making sure to turn on all the heat-lamps in the bathroom on his way in.

Kenma was in the process of soaking cloths with warm water, ringing them out, and then gently patting the kitten down with them to warm it up. Under the lights, Tetsurou could better take in the cat's appearance. In their large bathtub, it looked even smaller. It had stopped shaking, but its eyes kept darting around the room in panic, weary of Kenma’s hands whenever he moved to warm him up some more. 

The cat was a brown tabby, though while wet Tetsurou thought he looked a little bit more like a rat. He voiced as much to Kenma as he entered the bathroom, earning an eye roll. 

“Can you go get a dry towel from the cupboard? One of the small ones, if you can find them?” Kenma asked, turning his attention back to the cat. Tetsurou walked back out of the bathroom wordlessly to retrieve the towel and deliver it back to Kenma. 

Kenma took the towel, and lightly draped it over the kitten, before beginning to pat him dry. Tetsurou perched himself on the edge of the bathtub that Kenma and the kitten were currently residing in, watching Kenma focus on his task of drying the cat. Kenma’s tongue was poking out the corner of his mouth, a telltale sign that he was fully concentrated on what he was doing. 

“Anything else I can do?” Tetsurou asked. Usually he was the one who took action when situations arose, but today Kenma seemed more than willing to be the one at the helm. As much as Tetsurou joked about it, Kenma’s fondness for cats really was something incredible. 

Kenma continued lightly patting down the towel around the kitten. “He’s just scared, keep your voice down.”

Tetsurou nodded. “It’s a he?” He whispered back.

“Yeah,” Kenma said. “Do we have cat food?”

“Why would we have cat food?” Sure, they had a large house that had more random things that Kenma ordered online than Tetsurou could even fathom keeping count of, but they didn’t own a cat. They had no reason to have a spare can of it just lying around. 

Kenma sighed, picking up the kitten, keeping the towel bundled around him. The small kitten meowed as he got moved, but ultimately settled down again once Kenma had stood up in the bathtub and all movements ceased. “Do you think you can go get some?”

“It’s raining,” Tetsurou whined, trying to keep his voice down. “Can’t we feed him fish we have in the freezer?”

Kenma looked at Tetsurou as though he had proposed they murder somebody. “It’s a malnourished kitten. He needs kitten food.”

Kenma _and_ the kitten both looked at Tetsurou, both with big, pleading eyes, and Tetsurou couldn’t believe this cat had only invaded his house a mere ten minutes ago, and was already ganging up on him with Kenma.

Tetsurou was no fool. He knew defeat when it confronted him. Not that he really minded to begin with. “I guess I’ll drive to that 24 hour pet store, then.” 

“Thank you, Kuro,” Kenma said with a soft smile, and Tetsurou knew he’d walk around in the rain a million more times to see a smile like that. Just to top it off, Kenma leant forward, careful not to jostle the kitten too much, and kissed Tetsurou’s cheek. “Go change into dry clothes first, I don’t want you to get sick.”

“Whatever you say, captain.”

* * *

The trip to the pet store had taken more time than Tetsurou had thought it would. 

It had been the cat food’s fault, really. There were just so many varieties for so many different things. There were different brands, different flavours, and different age ranges all for Tetsurou to consider. 

And so naturally, he bought one can of each. Then it could become Kenma’s decision on what to feed him. 

But once Tetsurou had loaded up his trolley with mountains of tinned food… his mind began to wander. Did kittens need dry food instead? 

So then he had two bags of kibble added to his load. His mind, however, did not stop wandering, even then. He had a plan, and he supposed now was a better time than any to prepare for it. He ended up with so many items, that packing them into his car boot was almost impossible, like a game of Tetris he wasn’t even aware he was playing.

Once he arrived back home, he made the executive decision to only bring half of the cans of food inside the house, leaving the rest of the contents in the boot of his car. If Kenma couldn’t find one that was suitable amongst them… he’d just go back to his car and bring the next selection, and maybe the kibble to spice things up too.

The sight that greeted him as he made his way into their living room literally stopped him in his tracks, and all but forced him to pull out his phone and snap a quick photo. Kenma was laying across the sofa, now, thankfully, dry. And on his chest, the kitten was curled into a ball, his paws tucked under his body, and his tail wrapped around himself. Kenma had one hand lightly stroking the kitten, trying to soothe him. The whole sight was almost too adorable for Tetsurou to handle, his heart felt ready to explode 

“Welcome back,” Kenma greeted, not looking away from the kitten in front of him. “Was there a lot of traffic?”

Tetsurou lifted one arm to rub at the back of his neck. “No, not much, really. Things just took longer at the store than expected.” He held up the bag to Kenma, hoping the sheer amount of cans poking through the plastic explained his prolonged absence. 

Kenma furrowed his brows at the volume of the bag. “He’s not going to eat that much.” That said, Kenma slowly rose from his position, pulling the kitten up with him, and making his way to Tetsurou. He pulled the bag from Tetsurou’s hands, and replaced it with the kitten. “Hold him for a moment.”

“I- uh, okay.” Tetsurou looked down at the kitten, who looked less relaxed than he did a few moments ago on Kenma’s chest. Tetsurou went to ask Kenma what to do if the kitten got upset, but it seemed Kenma had already left the room while Tetsurou was distracted. 

The kitten really was too small, though now it wasn’t wet, and his fur wasn’t sticking to him. It fit in Tetsurou’s hands, and he could feel its trembling form so clearly against his palms. “I’m not going to hurt you, you can relax,” Tetsurou cooed at him.

“He’ll warm up to you.” Kenma had seemingly reappeared in the room, armed with a bowl and a spoon. “Just give him some time.”

“Some of us aren’t cat magnets,” Tetsurou joked. “Where do you want him?”

“Just put him down on the sofa,” Kenma said, walking behind Tetsurou. “He needs to eat.” 

Tetsurou deposited the brown tabby onto the sofa, just as Kenma instructed. The kitten seemed willing to stay there, eyeing Kenma and the contents of his bowl. Kenma took a seat next to the cat, and Tetsurou sat cross-legged on the floor in front of them, happy to spectate.

Kenma put a little bit of cat food into the spoon, careful to mash it up so there were no big bits, and held it out for the kitten to examine. The cat sniffed it for a few moments, before beginning to lick at the spoon at a quick pace. 

“He was so hungry,” Kenma said, sadness laced through his voice. “How’d he end up like that?”

Tetsurou shrugged. He wondered if the kitten had gotten separated from its mother - or worse, abandoned all together. The thought was enough to make him upset, and he had to take a longer look at the kitten to remind his brain that this wasn’t a sad story - this kitten was well looked after in the capable hands of Kozume Kenma now. 

Kenma put more food into the spoon, and held it out again, repeating the motions, before he spoke again. “Can we keep him?”

Tetsurou smiled. He knew this was coming, it was only the next most logical step. They had been meaning to get a cat for a while now, but had never had the time to make it to a rescue shelter. But this had fallen into place so seamlessly, as though it was meant to be. 

“Kenma, I have a whole boot full of cat products in the garage. I might have gone a little overboard in the pet shop, but I think we’re on the same page here.” And Tetsurou could have sworn he had never seen Kenma smile that brightly in his life. He was so attached to the cat already, and it was incredibly endearing, and Tetsurou thought that maybe he himself was a little bit in awe of the cat (and, of course, his husband’s dedication to nursing it to health) that he really didn’t think there was another choice but to welcome him to the family. “Though, we do have to name him.” 

“Link?” Kenma asked, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. 

“I like Link,” Tetsurou nodded affirmatively. “Strong name for a strong cat.”

Link mewled then, as though he was in agreement about his name. It seemed as though he was going to fit perfectly into their lives. Like a piece of a puzzle that neither Tetsurou or Kenma realised they were missing. 

“He will be strong, we’ll make sure of it,” Kenma said. “Welcome to the Kozume-Kuroo household, Link.”

At twenty-seven years of age, Kuroo Tetsurou finally got to fulfil the first promise he’d ever made to Kozume Kenma, and just like that, the family they’d built for themselves grew just a little bit bigger.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for giving this a read! feel free to tell me your thoughts in the comments, or come say hello on [twitter](https://twitter.com/kodzukuro) or my [writing account](https://twitter.com/cosmogonyAO3) !!!!!


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